Justice served: China implements death penalty in notorious child murder case

Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen were executed for the calculated murder of two toddlers, marking a tragic end to a case that shocked the world

China executed Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen on Wednesday for the heinous murder of two young children.

The Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court found the couple guilty of throwing Zhang’s 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son out of the 15th-floor window of an apartment building in November 2020.

Everything began when Zhang started having an affair with Ye despite being a married father, while Ye was initially unaware of his marital status. The court statement revealed that Ye later viewed the children as impediments to their relationship and future marriage, eventually convincing Zhang to commit the atrocious act.

The children’s deaths were premeditated since they were staged as an accidental fall from a high-rise building in Chongqing, a southwestern Chinese city. This cold-blooded plan was executed while the children’s mother was absent, who had agreed to get a divorce.

The Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced the couple to death in December 2021. The Supreme People’s Court recently approved this sentence following an appeal and a second trial at the Chongqing Higher People’s Court, which upheld the original ruling in May 2023.

The executions have sparked widespread discussion and outcry across China, with the story trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, attracting nearly 200 million views. The public’s reaction supported the verdict, with comments on state news agency Xinhua’s post underlining the sentiment that “the punishment fits the crime.”

Source: AFP