World News 01-10-2002 Mass Poisoner sentenced To Death who: Alleged killer Cheng Zhengping what: Convicted and sentenced to death for mass poisoning where: China when: Yesterday snippet: "The snack shop owner who killed 38 students and workers by poisoning a rival`s stock two weeks ago has been sentenced to death in a swift display of Chinese justice," reports John Gittings in The Guardian. Chen Zhengping`s crimes took place just two weeks ago and his trial lasted only three hours. He reportedly confessed to poisoning food at the Heshengyuan Soy Milk chain store in the eastern town of Tangshan, says Sky News. "Residents described seeing customers at the restaurant collapse, some bleeding from the mouth and ears, after eating fried dough sticks, sesame cakes and sticky rice balls there on the morning of September 14." He may appeal to the decision by the intermediate people`s court, writes Gittings, but "it would be unheard of for the verdict to be reversed". Zhengping will likely be paraded through the streets to his place of execution on the back of an open truck. But the BBC`s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes adds that "in a country where courts are controlled by the Communist Party, and confessions are regularly beaten out of suspects, there have to be serious concerns about the validity of any verdict." [... more]

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