China shows on TV prisoners being led for execution

China displayed four foreign prisoners before they were executed. Chinese television CCTV showed the prioners being led from prison cells as they were being transferred for execution in Yunnan province.

Naw Kham, the Burmese head of a drug gang, and three of his alleged henchmen – Hsang Kham, from Thailand; Zha Xika, from Laos; and Yi Lai, whom Chinese state media referred to as "stateless" – were executed by lethal injection in Kunming, southern China.


The men were convicted of murdering 12 Chinese sailors in northern Thailand near the Golden Triangle, a lawless area bordering Burma and Laos, in October 2011, according to official accounts.

Chinese state television aired a two-hour live broadcast before the executions, which showed the four prisoners as they were tied up by police officers and bundled into the back of a van.

The prisoners were sentenced to death last autumn, but a local court in Kunming did not announce the date of the executions until Wednesday.

The court said that it will hand over the prisoners' remains to their relatives and relevant consulates.