Kung fu coaches sentenced to death for 26-year-old poisoning case
Two kung fu coaches were sentenced to death on Monday. They had been arrested last year in connection with a 1997 poisoning that killed seven children, a court said.
Fu Zejie and Zhu Zulin planted rat poison in food at a martial arts school in east China's Anhui Province due to a business dispute with its boss. They then evaded prosecution for nearly 26 years.
They were each sentenced to death for the crime of poisoning by the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Ma'anshan.
Fu Zejie is pictured at the crime scene.
Zhu Zulin points out the crime scene.
The court said that "around 1994" Zhu and another man surnamed Peng were in dispute while running competing martial arts schools in the area.
In August 1996, Fu joined Peng's school as a coach. However, he gradually became dissatisfied with Peng over trivial matters.
Fu and Zhu met through a mutual friend and conspired to retaliate against Peng and ruin his martial arts school.
On the night of June 29, 1997, Fu sneaked into the school kitchen and put two packets of rat poison in the food. At around 7am the following morning, over 130 teachers and students began to suffer from symptoms including vomiting and convulsions after breakfast.
Seven students later died.
Among the deceased, the oldest student was 15 years old, and the youngest only 10, China News Weekly reported.
Victim Qian Xiaomin (a pseudonym) poses with his classmates from the martial arts school.
The pair were at large for over two decades until they were arrested by Jinjiang police in Fujian Province.
Fu and Zhu committed a joint crime and played an equal role in the joint crime, according to the first-instance verdict in the poisoning case. The two defendants were also sentenced to compensate for the economic losses suffered by the plaintiffs in accordance with the law.
