A court in Huaimeng district, Jinan, capital of Shandong province, recently sentenced five suspects to 12 to 13 years imprisonment for beating a thief to death. The five were ordered to pay more than 310,000 ($45,000) in compensation to the thief`s family.

Zhang, night watchman on a construction site, caught the thief Liu loitering with the intent to steal last September.

After calling in four colleagues, all five began frisking Liu for valuables, kicking and beating him in the process. Jia, one of Zhang`s colleagues, called Liu`s family several times in a vain attempt to extort money from them.

The police were called when Liu lost consciousness; Zhang and his cronies told them that Liu had taken a bad fall. Liu died upon arrival in hospital.