A Chinese court yesterday sentenced to death a Hong Kong gangster known as "Big Spender" for illegally buying explosives and to life imprisonment for kidnapping two of the territory's richest tycoons.
Police in bulletproof vests with AK-47 rifles ringed the court in southern Guangzhou city where Cheung Tze-keung (43) and six gang members were condemned to death in a case that aroused fierce controversy in Hong Kong.
Twenty-nine other gang members were also convicted for their roles in crimes that included illegally buying more than 800kg of explosives in China. The explosives were smuggled to Hong Kong, where police seized them.
Cheung was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping for ransom of two property developers, Mr Victor Li Tzar-kuoi and Mr Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, a court official said.