Taiwan tries smugglers for drowning six women

[dArKeR]

Taiwan began the trial yesterday of four people smugglers charged with drowning six Chinese illegal immigrants off the island's west coast, in an incident that has strained relations with Beijing.

The four Taiwanese men were smuggling 26 Chinese women into Taiwan on two speedboats in late August, and threw the women overboard when approached by Taiwan coastguards.

Six of the women drowned.

"Prosecutors are seeking death sentences for two of them because their boat was far away from shore when the women were thrown overboard," a spokesman for the Miaoli District Court in northern Taiwan said by telephone.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/10/29/1067390907.htm