Sun Xiaoguo stands trial at Yunnan High People's Court, on Dec 23, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

About two decades after being sentenced to death for multiple crimes, Sun Xiaoguo was executed by a court in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, on Feb 20 after China's top court approved his death penalty.

The Supreme People's Court gave its approval on Feb 12, and before he was executed, the Kunming Intermediate People's Court fully protected his legitimate rights by permitting him to meet his family members, according to a statement issued by the intermediate people's court on its website.

Sun was sentenced to three years in prison for rape in December 1995, but he did not serve the sentence after his parents faked his medical records to help him get medical parole.

In 1998, Sun, then 21, was sentenced to death by the intermediate people's court for rape, intentional injury, insulting women and disturbing public order. But the sentence was reduced to death with a two-year reprieve by the Yunnan High People's Court in 1999, and in 2007 was further cut to 20 years in prison.

Sun was freed in April 2010 after serving 12 years and five months in prison.

In October last year, the high people's court began reconsidering Sun's 1998 case because it found some judicial workers to have committed corruption or malpractice when dealing with the case, and a series of investigations, reviews of files and materials and visits to people involved in the case suggested the law was wrongly applied in the previous rulings.

On Dec 23, 2019, the high people's court confirmed its wrongful application of the law, saying judicial misconduct had to be corrected and the original conviction and death penalty given by the Kunming Intermediate People's Court should be upheld.

In addition, Sun's record after being released caught up with him. During the retrial of the high people's court, the Yuxi Intermediate People's Court in Yunnan sentenced Sun to 25 years in prison for organized crimes committed between 2013 and 2018.

Considering Sun's multiple offenses in 1998, not serving his complete sentence in 1995 and crimes after leaving prison in 2010, the high people's court decided to combine the punishments and sentenced him to death. His private property was confiscated at that time.

Under Chinese criminal law, a death sentence handed down by a lower court must be submitted to the SPC for review, and the sentence can be carried out only when it is approved by the top court.

The Kunming Intermediate People's Court released the SPC's decision in its statement published on Thursday. The SPC said Sun, who raped several women, including those under the age of 18, illegally restricted others' freedom and seriously disturbed public order, should be harshly punished.

The SPC also said the ruling made by the high people's court after the rehearing was sound, with clear facts, sufficient evidence, correct conviction and reasonable sentence and legal procedures, adding it approved the ruling after a review.

Sun attracted national attention in April last year when a Yunnan media outlet reported several gangs, including one led by Sun, had been caught during a crackdown against organized crime in Kunming.

His case triggered widespread concern over corruption in the provincial judicial and prison systems, as follow-up stories showed Sun had escaped the death sentence handed down in 1998 after he was found guilty of multiple crimes and had been living as a free man.

Separately, 19 people, including a few former high-level officials involved in Sun's case in 1990s as well as Sun's parents, were sentenced for duty-related crimes in December.

Sun's mother, former police officer Sun Heyu, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for multiple crimes, such as bribery and influencing leniency in her son's punishment.

Li Qiaozhong, Sun’s stepfather and former director of the Wuhua district urban management bureau in Kunming, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for similar charges.

Seventeen others, including those who worked for the high people’s court, public security and prison systems, were given sentences ranging from two to 12 years in prison for illegal leniency in punishing Sun Xiaoguo and reducing his prison term after accepting bribes from his parents.