Man Sentenced to Death over Attack on Japanese in China

Tokyo, Jan. 23 (Jiji Press)--A Chinese district court on Thursday sentenced a man to death over an attack on two Japanese people that left a Chinese woman dead in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, eastern China, last June, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said.

The court in Suzhou did not mention Japan in either the first trial hearing or the ruling.

According to the ministry officials, the court said 52-year-old Zhou Jiasheng either killed or injured three people, including a child, because he was tired of living in debt, adding that his crime was extremely heinous.

The court concluded that capital punishment is appropriate, given the massive social impact of the incident.

On June 24, 2024, the Japanese woman and her child were injured by the man with a knife while they were waiting for a Japanese school bus at a bus stop. The Chinese woman, Hu Youping, who was a guide on the bus, was killed in the attack.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]