published by: China News Digest, Thursday, December 28, 1995

[CND, 12/27/95] Five Russians are to be tried soon on charge of murdering two Chinese businessmen in Russia's Far East region, Agence France Presse reported Tuesday from Moscow. In the spring, three of the accused wearing local police uniforms kidnapped the Chinese business people into a forest, and murdered them there. The accused then burned the dead's bodies, and took away their jewelry and large amounts of cash in rubles and other currency. The other two men due to stand trial in 1996 were alleged accomplices. The AFP quoted a spokesman from the Russian chief prosecutor's office as saying that there were 443 crimes against Chinese citizens in the Far Eastern Primorye region during the past 11 months -- a rise of 11 percent over 1994. In most cases, other Chinese were responsible, the spokesman added.

(Kewen ZHANG, Daluo JIA)