A Chinese court has sentenced two teenagers to imprisonment for murdering their 13-year-old classmate.
According to BBC, two 13-year-old schoolboys from Hebei, identified only by their surnames Zhang and Li, killed their classmate Wang with a shovel and divided his money in March 2024.
The court, in a statement on Monday, December 30, 2024, said that the boys, after killing Wand, buried him in an abandoned vegetable greenhouse.
The court noted that their "methods were especially cruel and circumstances especially vile."
Zhang was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Li will spend 12 years in prison.
Moreover, the Wang family and lawyer told the court in March that he was bullied by three of his classmates in the school.
As per the court, the victim had had conflicts with Zhang and Li, while the third boy, identified by his surname Ma, was also present in court, but he did not receive any capital punishment.
The four teenagers went to a greenhouse on two scooters on March 3. Li, who was on the vehicle with Ma, told him about Zhang’s plan of killing Wang.
After arriving at the greenhouse, Zhang started assaulting Wang with a shovel while Li assisted him in it, and upon seeing the horrific scene, Ma left the scene.
Li and Zhang then buried Wang and rode back. Later, Zhang used the victims’ mobile phone and transferred money from Whang’s WeChat account to Lee and himself and asked Ma to destroy the SIM card.
The court said that Zhang was sentenced to life imprisonment as he was the main culprit who planned the murder and instigated others too. Li was sentenced to 12 years in prison because he was also actively involved in the murder and shared the stolen money, while Ma will undergo correction and education.
