Four criminals, including ringleader Naw Kham, were sentenced to death on Tuesday for killing 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River on October 5 last year, according to a local court in Yunnan Province.

Two other criminals on the court received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve and eight years in prison respectively in a verdict at the Intermediate People's Court of Kunming.

The court also came down on the side of the civil compensation petition from the families of victims, totaling about 6 million yuan ($960,000). All six defendants said in court that they would appeal.

All six criminals, comprised of five people from Myanmar, Thailand and Laos and one other, were sent to China in a regional judicial cooperation among China and Southeast Asian countries, after 13 Chinese sailors aboard two cargo ships, the Huaping and Yuxing 8, were found killed in Thai waters on the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle Region.

They were charged with intentional homicide, drug trafficking, kidnapping and hijacking by the Kunming People's Procuratorate.

The verdict was delivered after a two-day trial on September 20 and 21, during which 43-year-old Naw Kham, head of an armed drug gang from Myanmar, pleaded guilty to murder. He was caught in a joint action by Chinese and Lao police in April and expatriated to China in May.

Liu Yuejin, director of the Ministry of Public Security's anti-drug bureau, said Tuesday on Central China Television that the verdict was fair to the criminals and the relatives of the victims, while maintaining the dignity of the nation and its people.

Liu led a special cross-border investigation team to investigate the murder case.

Han Yusheng, a law professor at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that the six criminals would only challenge the verdict from two aspects, details about the facts and the severity of their sentences.

"Since the public has paid particular attention to the case, the higher court will rule on the case within months. If the higher court reinforces the verdict, then the death sentence will be handed over to the Supreme People's Court for approval," Han said.

Death sentences in China are finalized after the Supreme Court approves the verdict.

The Mekong River is an important waterway in Southeast Asia with a length of almost 5,000 kilometers to link China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

After the killing in October last year, China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand launched joint patrols along the river, and cargo ferries resumed services on the river in December.

Xinhua contributed to this story

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