Twenty-five South American thieves were each sentenced to between one and 15 years in prison and fined 5,000-100,000 yuan (US$605-12,082) on December 23 at Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court. All of them will be deported.

From Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica, they were convicted of being involved in three thefts from May 12 to 17 at the Bank of Communications' Shanghai Branch, the Fifth Shanghai International Jewelry Exhibition and Pudong International Airport, in which diamonds, gems and cash worth a total of 6.13 million yuan (US$730,400) were stolen.

After pronouncing, the chief judge said the sixth article of Criminal Law stipulates that "the law is applicable to all crimes committed in the territory of the People's Republic of China," meaning the defendants ought to be punished according to Chinese law.

At the jewelry expo in Shanghai on May 13, one of the defendants pretended to exchange name cards with staff from the Jinghua Company whilst his fellow gangsters took the opportunity to steal a blue canvas bag the staff had put under a showcase. There were over 2,000 carats of diamonds and other valuables in the bag, worth up to 4.46 million yuan (US$539,000).

(China.org.cn December 24, 2004)