China executes man who killed official after home demolished

BEIJING: A Chinese man who killed a village official after his home was forcibly demolished was executed on Tuesday, a court said, despite a public outcry over his condemnation.
Jia Jinglong shot dead his village chief with a nail gun in the northern province of Hebei last year, state media said.
Lawyers and online commenters had called for Jia's sentence to be commuted on the grounds that the demolition of his home by local officials constituted extenuating circumstances, and because he confessed to the crime.
The house was pulled down just weeks before his wedding day in 2013, the state-run Global Times reported, adding he was beaten and denied compensation.
"The execution of the murderer Jia Jinglong has been carried out," the Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang said on a verified social media account.
Before the execution Jia met his relatives "according to the law", the official news agency Xinhua said.
Neither the court nor Xinhua specified how Jia was put to death, but executions in China are believed generally to be carried out by lethal injection.
Jia's case had sparked widespread debate on Chinese social media. Hundreds signed an online petition calling for the death sentence to be revoked, while lawyers for the family sent a letter to court officials asking for a reprieve.
Brutal land seizures and forced evictions of villagers by local officials clearing the way for development projects are a major source of social resentment in China, sometimes triggering unrest.
China is widely believed to lead the world in executions with estimates of a few thousand every year although the exact figure is considered a state secret.
They have declined in recent years following the requirement that the Supreme Court review such sentences.
A Chinese court last year commuted the death sentence of a woman who killed her abusive husband after a public outcry, in what was seen as a landmark verdict. — AFP