Yang Ning enters a court in Shenyang, Liaoyang Province, on May 23.

The Chinese government informed the consulate that Yang Ning, 25, was executed July 12, the consulate said in a statement.

The execution followed a Chinese court's rejection of an appeal by Yang at an undisclosed date, the statement said.

The Intermediate People's Court in Liaoyang, northeastern Liaoning Province, sentenced Yang to death in January for the murder of clothing dealer Shinjiro Matsumoto and his family.

In the Jan. 24 ruling, the court also sentenced another man, Wang Liang, 23, to life imprisonment in connection with the murders.

Wang was given life because he turned himself in and cooperated with investigators. Neither the Chinese prosecutors nor Wang appealed that ruling.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 30, 2005
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