Case shocked Chinese public opinion
A court in northern China’s Hebei province sentenced a 13-year-old teenager to life in prison for his role in the murder of a classmate, in a case that shocked Chinese public opinion.
The Handan Intermediate Court sentenced Zhang, 13, to life in prison for the murder last March of Wang, the same age, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The accomplice, Li, also 13 years old, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The third minor involved, Ma, who was the same age and who did not directly participate in the murder but helped destroy evidence, was freed from criminal responsibility and will undergo a reintegration program.
The crime originated in a dispute between the defendants and Wang.
Zhang devised the plan, persuading Li to collaborate in Wang’s murder and distribution of money. Preparations included choosing an abandoned greenhouse as the crime scene and digging a hole to bury the body.
On March 10, 2024, Zhang lured the victim to the agreed location. Li, in turn, transported Ma to the location under the pretext of charging the battery of his electric motorcycle.
During the journey, Ma was informed of the plan. In the greenhouse, Zhang attacked Wang with a shovel, while Li pinned him down. Ma, upon witnessing the act, fled the scene.
After committing the crime, Zhang and Li buried the body, stole money from Wang’s account and destroyed his cell phone. Ma later cooperated with authorities, providing the location of the victim’s location.
The court found that the acts of Zhang and Li, being deliberate and carried out “in a particularly cruel manner”, constituted the crime of premeditated murder.
Although both were 13 years old at the time of the crime, the Chinese Penal Code stipulates that, in serious cases, minors aged between 12 and 14 can be held criminally responsible if authorized by the country’s Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, which the institution did in April .
Zhang was identified as primarily responsible for conceiving and executing the plan, while Li was identified as an active accomplice, albeit with a lesser degree of responsibility.
At the time, the case raised concerns about juvenile delinquency in Chinese society.
After the incident, local media explained that the three accused teenagers were “left-behind children”, a term used on Chinese social media to describe minors who live with their grandparents in rural areas while their parents work in cities.
Furthermore, Wang was being a victim of abuse at school, which led several voices in the Asian country to call for “the creation of specialized systems to prevent ‘bullying’ in schools”, for the adoption of a “zero tolerance” attitude. towards aggressors and support measures for victims.
