China ex-chief prosecutor executed for killing wife

BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) The disgraced chief prosecutor of a district in northwest China has been executed for stabbing his wife to death in her sleep, the Beijing News reported today.

Chen Ping, former chief prosecutor of Qindu district in Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, was put to death yesterday after the provincial high court rejected his appeal, the newspaper said without saying how he was executed.

Chen drugged his wife, Wang Ling, tied her hands and feet and stabbed her 21 times in the chest and stomach at their home on Sept.

28, 2003, the daily said. The couple did not get along, it said without elaborating.

He was also convicted of accepting 50,000 dollars in bribes from government officials under investigation for corruption and illegal possession of military ammunition, the newspaper added.

Corruption, virtually snuffed out in the years after the 1949 Communist revolution, has staged a comeback in the past 25 years in the wake of market reforms which have spawned greed.

China's leaders have warned that the Communist Party could self-destruct if it fails to rein in graft, which helped bring down many imperial dynasties.

Reuters LL GC1040