A prisoner is shown being led to his execution, April 2002

CHINA. MAN ACCUSED OF FUKUOKA FAMILY MURDERS EXECUTED FOLLOWING FAILED APPEAL

July 25, 2005: Yang Ning, a Chinese man sentenced to death over the killing of a family of four in the Japanese city of Fukuoka in 2003 had been executed for the crime, Japanese diplomats said. The Liaoning High People's Court contacted the Japanese consulate in Shenyang and said the death sentence against Yang, 25, was carried out on July 12.
The high court denied Yang's appeal against an earlier district court ruling that had sentenced him to death for the crime. Details on when the appeal was denied were not released by the high court. A lower court in China sentenced Yang to death in January 2005, while sentencing Wang Liang, 23, another participant in the crime, to life imprisonment.
Yang, a former private university student, Wang and another man, Wei Wei, 25, murdered Shinjiro Matsumoto, 41, his wife Chika and their two children, Kai, 11 and Hina, 8, in June 2003. Yang and Wang were later arrested by Chinese authorities. Wei was apprehended by Japanese authorities and was handed the death sentence by the Fukuoka District Court in May 2005. (Sources: Mainichi, 25/07/2005)