TAIYUAN, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Five members of a gang of tomb robbers in north China's Shanxi Province were sentenced to life imprisonment or death sentence with a reprive on Sunday, the court said.
The gang of nine were found guilty of more than 74 crimes in Wenxi County of Yuncheng City since 1993, according to the verdict of Yuncheng Intermediate People's Court.
The defendants, Hou Jinfa, Hou Jinhai, Zhang Chengjun and Li Jinyu, were given life sentences for crimes including organizing gang crime and gambling, tomb robbery, and illegally possession of weapons.
Another defendant Zhang Baomin, was sentenced to death with a two year reprieve for crimes including illegal detention, tomb robbery and drug trafficking.
The other four members of the gang were sentenced to terms of up to 20 years in prison.
In 2017, the province of Shanxi caught 200 suspects involved in 121 cultural heritage-related cases.
