Prosecutors on Monday rejected the defense submitted by a man who claimed he had two accomplices to commit the kidnapping and murder of a Shenzhen student in 2009.
There was no proof of the existence of Zou Chun s alleged accomplices. Zou stood trial at Shenzhen Intermediate People s Court again for kidnapping and killing Xiao Yi, a Nanshan Foreign Language School student, after he was not paid ransom in 2009, prosecutors said.
Zou claimed at the first court hearing in September last year that it was his two accomplices who kidnapped and killed the boy and took the ransom. Zou claimed he had just transported the boy s body.
According to prosecutors, Li Xiaofei, a colleague of the victim s father, posed as the kidnapper after learning the boy was missing. He called the father demanding US$500,000 in ransom.
The boy s father paid the ransom but did not see his son at the city train station, where Li claimed he had left the boy.
Li exchanged the dollars into 3.1 million yuan in cash at an illegal bank and fled. Police later caught Li and recovered the 3 million yuan. Li was sentenced to 14 years in prison in July last year. He had admitted that he had no idea who Zou was, according to prosecutors.
(By Li Hao)
