China Executes 12 For Robbing Tombs

Twelve people convicted of robbing cultural relics from ancient tombs were executed Thursday, the Supreme People’s Court announced.

Robbing graves and selling the stolen cultural relics have been increasing in recent years, said the court’s vice president, Liu Jiachen.

Some robbers work with gangs outside China to smuggle relics, Liu said.

The court plans to carry out a special fight against grave-robbing this year, said the official Xinhua News Agency.

The robbers who were sentenced to death were involved in three cases in Shanxi and Hubei provinces, the report said.