In Northern China, a court has handed lengthy prison terms to two (2) teenagers for murdering their classmate with a shovel.
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| Police officers patrol a street in China. Photo: Getty Images |
The case has ignited national debate over the treatment of juvenile offenders.
Three (3) suspects, all thirteen (13) years of age, were accused in April of bullying a 13-year-old classmate surnamed Wang over a long period before eventually killing him in March in an abandoned greenhouse.
Details of the case revealed, the killer’s reportedly attacked Wang with a shovel before burying his body.
Surnamed Zhang and Li, two of the suspects were sentenced to life and 12 years in jail respectively for intentional homicide, by a court in the Handan city in the province of Hebei, China’s CCTV disclosed on Monday.
China’s CCTV added, the court found the methods of the killing “were particularly cruel, and the circumstances were particularly heinous”.
Surnamed Ma, a third suspect, escaped with a sentence of “special correctional education”, in line with the law.
