Leader of China prostitution ring executedDec 8, 2011, 05.27PM
BEIJING: The female head of a gang in the southwestern megacity of
Chongqing
that forced hundreds of
women
to work as prostitutes -- some of whom died or went mad -- was executed Wednesday, state media said.
Wang Ziqi, who ran a gang that operated brothels under the guise of teahouses, beauty salons or
hotels
, was sentenced to death in August 2010, the
China News Service
said. Her subsequent appeal failed and she was put to death.
According to previous media reports, Wang ran the gang with her sister
Wang Wanning
, who fled abroad but was caught and brought back to China in April. Two other sisters were also involved.
From 1994 to 2009, the gang forced more than 300 women looking for employment at local jobs markets into prostitution by luring them to the beauty salons or hotels, cqnews.net, a website that belongs to the official Chongqing Daily, reported.
The Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court, which sentenced Wang Ziqi, was unavailable for comment.
The sisters would control the women by using methods such as "seizing their ID cards, ruining their reputations, harming their family members, confiscating the money they earnt and detaining them illegally," the cqnews.net report said.
They also arranged for designated people to teach the women the "skills" of prostitution, it added. The women had to work even when they had their period or after they had undergone forced abortions, or risk being beaten and put in a dark room for days without food.
