Teens Sentenced in Case That Horrified China

Two 13-year-olds murdered a classmate for his money
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 30, 2024 2:59 PM CST
Teens Sentenced in Case That Horrified China
A man walks along the road in the city of Handan in northern China's Hebei province in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Emily Wang Fujiyama, File)

A murder case that prompted much public discussion in China has ended with two young teens imprisoned for murder. The boys in Hebei province were both 13 when they brought a bullied classmate to an abandoned greenhouse, killed him with a shovel, and buried his body, reports the BBC. The teen who hatched the plot, identified only as Zhang, received a life sentence, and the other boy, Li, received 12 years. A third teen, Ma, who accompanied the others to the crime scene but did not take part in the actual killing, received a sentence of "special correctional education" instead of prison, per the Tapei Times.

The sentencing court said the killers' "methods were especially cruel and circumstances especially vile." After the killing, Zhang transferred money from the victim's WeChat account to himself and Li, and he ordered Ma to destroy the SIM card on the victim's phone. It was Ma who led police to the buried body when police questioned him. The victim's family said all three had bullied him in school. "The one that only got 12 years will be a young man when he is released," reads a popular comment on the Weibo messaging platform, per the BBC. "Hope he doesn't take revenge on society when he is out." (More China stories.)

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