Trafficker gets death for selling 44 children

Trafficker gets death for selling 44 children

2005-08-09 SCMP

A mainland court has sentenced a man to death for running a child-

trafficking ring that sold 44 children to Singapore over five years,

a state newspaper reported. Ke Pangjie was sentenced in Quanzhou

city, Fujian, while partners Wu Wenbin and Sheng Zhenzhong received

life imprisonment and 15 years' jail respectively, the Beijing News

reported. The court said the severity of the verdict reflected the

large number of children sold from 1998, with no hope of winning

their return. In 1998, Ke met He Yidi, who ran an adoption agency in

Singapore, the newspaper said. While He and an accomplice set about

identifying families in Singapore that wanted to adopt a child, Ke

searched for children in Fujian's Quanzhou, Yongchun and Anxi cities.

The children were bought from willing parents for between 5,000 and

10,000 Yuan, and sold for at least S$8,000 ($37,600). The report did

not say what happened to the traffickers in Singapore. A total of 10

people were involved in the ring.