BEIJING - TWO criminals were executed in eastern China on Thursday after escaping prison and attacking police, a court statement said.
Liu Junjie, 35 and Wang Bing 31, attacked a prison guard and two policemen as they broke out of jail in December 2007, said a statement from the Shandong provincial high court that ordered the execution.
Liu and Wang were quickly recaptured and faced execution because they had initially been sentenced to death with two-year reprieves in 2006 for armed robbery, it said.
The two-year reprieve meant they would have had their sentences commuted to life in jail if they had behaved correctly in that time period.
Both criminals were repeat offenders who had been jailed previously, the court said, adding they were executed in Shandong on Thursday.
China executes more people than any other country in the world, according to rights group Amnesty International.
Chinese authorities keep secret the number of people it puts to death, but Amnesty said last year it estimated that between 5,000 and 6,000 people were executed in China in 2007. -- AFP
