On 29 December 2001, Gong Shengliang was sentenced to death and his niece, Li Ying, sentenced to death with a two year reprieve, by Jingmen City Intermediate People’s Court in the central province of Hubei. They were tried with 15 others, three of whom, according to some sources, were also sentenced to death. The other co-defendants were sentenced to between two years’ and life imprisonment.
