A policeman from Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi Province, has been sentenced to death for the murder of a Beijing policeman.

Nine suspects stand trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province on April 26, 2006. [sina]

The court was told that at 8 pm on May 3, 2005, Beijing policeman Li Zhongyi, who was on holiday with his family in Taiyuan, quarreled with local policeman Liu Limin when their vehicles nearly collided at a road crossing.

Still angry about the encounter, Liu followed Li's jeep to the Xintangdu Hotel where Li and his family were staying, and called eight other people. The gang gathered and waited outside the hotel.

When Li re-emerged from a parking lot near the hotel at 8.50 p.m the same day, Liu and his accomplices surrounded Li and beat him with wooden planks, sticks and aluminium alloy pipes before fleeing the scene.

Li died at the local hospital after failing to respond to medical treatment.

Liu was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and Zhou Chuanquan, who used a wood plank to hit Li's head, was also sentenced to death.

The seven other men involved were sentenced to prison terms ranging from nine to 15 years.