Chinese live television has shown four foreigners being led to their executions for the killings of 13 Chinese sailors, a throwback to the mass public execution rallies of past years.

State broadcaster CCTV showed live pictures of the four being led from their cells at a jail in the southwestern city of Kunming on Friday afternoon. They were then trussed with a rope binding their arms behind their backs and placed into court vans.

Accused ringleader Naw Kham and accomplices Hsang Kham, Yi Lai, and Zha Xiha were found guilty of the murder of 13 Chinese sailors in an Oct. 5, 2011, attack on the Mekong River. The four are of Myanmar, Thai, Laotian, and unknown nationality.

China has mostly abandoned the practice of parading condemned criminals before crowds.