The Puyang City Intermediate People's Court in Henan Province sentenced child-trafficking ringleader Li Guoju to death, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Li was the mastermind of the group that kidnapped and sold at least 120 children over a five-year period.

Two other leaders, Yu Xiushu and Zhang Xinfa, were given life imprisonment and fined 20,000 yuan (US$2,415). Twelve others involved in the case were sentenced to between one and 15 years in jail.

All were convicted of collusion in the kidnapping and trading of children between 1998 and 2003. The Xinhua report did not provide details of the case or the arrests.

Human trafficking has reemerged as a serious problem in China in recent years.

Children and infants are frequently kidnapped or purchased by traffickers and sold to childless couples or as "adopted" second children. Women and girls are seized and sold as brides in remote agricultural areas.

Public security officials announced in March that 42,215 women and children kidnapped in the three years from 2001 had been located and freed from their captors.

(China Daily, China.org.cn July 30, 2004)