Finally, it’s over. One of the most watched cases in China’s recent history has come to a conclusion with the execution of the man responsible for the murder of a female-Nanjing-college student. The Nanjinger has been watching the case from the outset.
On 7 May, 2023, the Intermediate People’s Court of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province executed Hong Qiao in accordance with legal procedures for his murder of the 21-year-old college student surnamed Li, on 9 July, 2020. The Paper has reported the story in full.
Before the death sentence was carried out, the Intermediate People’s Court of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture arranged for Hong to meet with close relatives in accordance with the law, fully safeguarding the legitimate rights of the condemned.
Hong was sentenced to death on 27 June, 2022, for intentional homicide and theft. He was also deprived of his political rights for life and fined ¥10,000.
Upon appeal, the Yunnan Provincial Higher People’s Court ruled in the second instance to reject, uphold the original judgment and submit it to the Supreme People’s Court for approval.
After their review, that Court found itself believing in the facts of the case as determined in the first and second-instance judgments. The Court found the evidence reliable and sufficient, the conviction accurate, the sentencing appropriate and the trial procedure legal.
For readers who have not followed the case, Li was murdered by her boyfriend, Hong, and two others, in Menghai County of Yunnan Province.
She had been lured there from Nanjing under a false pretense by Hong, together with the other two, surnamed Cao and Zhang. It is believed that once there, Hong had instructed the others to kill Li.
Family members of female-college students in Nanjing close to the victim revealed at the time a possible motive to have been an emotional dispute not long before the trip to Yunnan.
After the incident, Hong pretended to help Li’s parents find their daughter and even accompanied them to Nanjing’s Maqun Police Station. Hong went on to cite him having psychological issues, a claim rejected by public security organs and the Menghai County People’s Procuratorate.
The case became a sensation with Li’s father refusing to ever give up. Making it clear that he did not seek compensation, he said 1 year after the murder, “Murderers should pay with their life. We firmly demand that he be executed”.
But he found himself then attracting the ire of the watching world, when he subsequently live streamed from outside the courthouse as the trial was heard, drawing millions of followers and the inevitable accusation that he was seeking to profit from the death of his own daughter.
