The Higher People's Court of south China's Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region handed down second court verdicts Monday ranging
from imprisonment to death for 14 Myanmar pirates charged with
raiding a Taiwanese cargo ship and setting its 21 crew members
adrift in the Andaman Sea.
The head of the pirate gang, Maung Htay Aung, was given the death
sentence with a two-year reprieve. Kwaw Soe and Kyaw Soe Lin were
sentenced to life in prison, and all their personal property was
confiscated.
Eleven other pirates were also sentenced to prison terms from three
to ten years. They have been charged various fines and deported
from China.
The pirates hijacked the Marine Master cargo ship on March 17,
1999, which was sailing through the Andaman Sea south of Myanmar
heading from China's eastern port of Zhangjiagang to Calcutta,
India, when the pirates boarded the ship.
Armed with guns and knives, the pirates hijacked the ship and
seized alkali as well as crew members' valuables with a total value
of more than 5.8 million yuan (US$698,000).
The crew was forced into a lifeboat, which floated for 10 days
before being rescued by fishermen from Thailand. Meanwhile, the
pirates disguised the cargo ship and sailed it to the port of
Shantou in south China's Guangdong Province, where they sold the
cargo of alkali. When the ship arrived at the city of Fangchenggang
in southern Guangxi for repairs on June 8, local police spotted it
and arrested the pirates.
On
January 31, 2000, at a public trial at the Fangchenggang
Intermediate People's Court, the first trial sentences were handed
down. After the trial, all the pirates appealed their convictions
to the Higher People's Court of Guangxi.
(People’s Daily)