China farmer executed for grisly temple killings

BEIJING, Dec 28 (Reuters) China executed a farmer today for killing ten people in a temple, including the abbot who he believed had flirted with his wife.

Qiu Xinghua, 47, went on his killing spree in July at the remote mountain temple in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.

State media said Qiu had cut out the abbot's eyes, heart and lungs and fried them in a wok. He had used the victims' blood to write ''Deserved to die'' on the temple wall.

Qiu was convicted of slaying ten staff and pilgrims at the temple and of robbing and killing another while on the run.

The Shaanxi Provincial Higher People's Court authorised his execution by shooting, a lower court in the city of Ankang said on its Web site (www.akfy.org.cn).

Chinese psychiatrists and legal scholars had urged a full psychiatric examination, suspecting that Qiu committed the crimes during a spell of mental illness.

But the appeals court was convinced that Qiu had been sane throughout, said the Ankang court, which heard Qiu's first trial and handed down the death sentence.

He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University, said the execution did not surprise him but it was ''very disappointing''.

''We have the same result despite these strong academic appeals,'' He told Reuters by telephone. ''Without the most basic procedure, important questions remain unanswered.'' He added that Chinese judicial deparments tended to mete out swift and harsh punishments in major criminal cases to try to pacify the public.

The execution came just days before the Supreme People's Court takes back its power to approve death penalties, devolved to provincial higher courts during a crackdown on crime in the early 1980s.

Reuters BDP DB1209