A Chinese official was executed in the country's Henan province on Tuesday for raping 11 underage girls, state media reported quoting court officials.
Li Xingong, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Yongcheng city committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was arrested in May 2012 on charges of raping several adolescent girls starting from the second half of 2011. The case had triggered widespread public outrage on the Internet after its exposure.
A court in Shangqiu city sentenced him to death for raping the adolescents and deprived him of his political rights for life. The Henan Provincial Higher People's Court rejected Li's appeal and the Supreme People's Court later confirmed the death sentence, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The execution was carried out at a time when China has vowed protection of juveniles following a series of sexual abuse cases involving children.
The Supreme People's Court last month had directed courts across the country to come down harder on crimes committed against juveniles, show minimal tolerance toward such offenders and offer the greatest level of protection possible for children.
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