DONGGUAN, Guangdong - A mother was sentenced to five years in prison by a local court on Tuesday for murdering her ill twin sons.

Han Qunfeng, 37, a former bank clerk in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong province, gave her sons water laced with sleeping pills before drowning them in the bathtub last November.

The 13-year-olds had been born prematurely and had cerebral palsy, which made them rely entirely on the care of others.

The Dongguan No 1 People's Court handed down the lenient sentence to Han following her trial on June 2.

"We were trying to look for a balance between law and sympathy in the case," said Xue Fengyan, a judge at the court.

Han confessed to the murders and said that she had not seen any hope that the boys would recover from the disease.

"I just wanted them to leave quietly. I would not kill them if we could go back in time," Han told judges at the early hearing.

In the past decade, Han and her husband took the boys to hospitals in Dongguan and Guangzhou for treatment. She even quit her job to look after them when she found it harder to hire nannies.

Judge Xue said the court had taken the social impact of the case into consideration when deciding the sentence.

"She has a very complicated family background and motive. That's why we decided to hand down the lenient sentence," Xue said.

After the boys were dead, Han dressed them in new pajamas and then attempted to take her own life by drinking a mixture of pesticide and rat poison, a source with the local court said.

Han's husband also forgave her for the murders because the family was at the brink of bankruptcy after spending all of its savings on the twins' treatment.

Their plight aroused great sympathy from neighbors and former colleagues who jointly wrote a letter to the court pleading for mercy for the poor mother.

"She deserved the lenient sentence. The murders resulted from years of mental burden," Xue said.

Usually, a person involved in a relatively minor murder will be sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, according to China's Criminal Law.

"After all, the murders did not cause much threat to society."

Together with the verdict, the judge will write a letter to encourage the mother to cherish life.

"Personally, I feel very sympathetic for the mother," Xue said.

At the court on Tuesday, Han did not say whether she would appeal to a higher court.