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Chinese killers of German family to face fast trial

BEIJING: Three of the four confessed killers of a German family in China face execution after a trial likely to take place soon, a police official said on Tuesday.

"They will be tried as quickly as possible -- probably this month," the official told Reuters from the eastern province of Jiangsu two days after automobile executive Jurgen Pfrang, his wife and two children were hacked to death.

Four farmers, aged between 19 and 23 years from a community near the Pfrang villa on the outskirts of Nanjing, were arrested at the house after a security guard saw one clambering down a drainpipe and called the police.

Police said the farmers confessed to murdering the family, whose bodies were found huddled together in a blood-spattered room on the second floor of the villa. Pfrang apparently tackled the intruders and a trail of blood led up the stairs.

The Jiangsu police official said one of the farmers was apparently outside when the killings occured in the early hours of Sunday morning and would probably face a long jail term.

"The other three will probably be shot," he said, stressing he was expressing a personal opinion.

Police made a videotape of the crime scene for use as evidence in the trial, the official said.

Prfang, 51, who worked for DaimlerChrysler, his 39-year old wife, 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, were hacked and stabbed to death with heavy knives usually used to chop up watermelons.

The Shanghai Star newspaper gave the wife's name as Petra, the daughter's as Sandra Melanie and the son's as Torsten Oliver.

The crime is believed to be by far the worst violence in recent times against Westerners in China. It is regarded as one of the safer countries for foreign residents and tourists, although crime generally is rising, linked to a vast population of unemployed rural drifters. -Reuters