CHINA / Regional |
China sentences oil thieves to deathUpdated: 2007-07-28 16:48 China has sentenced to death two leaders of a gang which stole crude oil by drilling into pipelines, causing 400 million yuan ($53 million) in damage, the Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday. A court in Dongying city, in the eastern province of Shandong, gave a suspended death sentence to another gang member on Friday and sentenced seven others to prison terms ranging from three years to life. In 2005 the gang slipped into a seabed oil extraction centre at China's Shengli oilfield and drilled into a pipeline, but fled when they found it contained natural gas instead of oil. A month later, they stole 10 tons of crude oil from a nearby pipeline, Xinhua said. The holes in the pipes were not discovered until months later, by which time the leaks had disrupted local fisheries. |
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