Four men were sentenced to between eight and 14 years in prison for their involvement in 13 cases of human trafficking in which 14 women and one child were sold, Shanghai Xuhui District People's Court announced Friday.
A Yunnan Province man, Huang Debin, was sentenced to 14 years for luring women to Suqian, Jiangsu Province, where they would be sold to men who had trouble finding wives, according to a news release from the court.
From three years, Huang and two other men from Yunnan lured the women by offering to help them find work or by promising to take them on a trip. Many of the women were mentally handicapped or infertile, according to the court.
When the victims arrived in Suqian, a local man, Du Zhaoliang, acted as the middleman to sell them off. Prices ranged from several thousand yuan to 20,000 yuan ($3,146), according to the court.
Du was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In June 2011, Shanghai police arrested Huang and the two other Yunnan men at a hotel near Shanghai South Railway Station, where they were accompanied by three women they planned to send to Suqian.
During their interrogation, police uncovered stunning details. Du said he bought his own wife after the previous one ran away. Another told police that he sold his sister to one of the other men in the ring.
Under Chinese law, a person can be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for selling more than three women or three children.
The court said that buyers are also culpable in human trafficking cases as they make the trade possible. Chinese criminal law states that buying abducted women or children is punishable by three years in prison. However, the court said prosecutors won't press charges if buyers release the women, so long as they haven't been abused.
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