Thursday 20 September 2012

TEEN GIRL JAILED 4 YEARS FOR KILLING





CHINA'S cyber citizens have once again taken to the Internet to protest a judge's decision to convict and sentence a teenage girl accused of murdering her would-be rapist, a 50-year-old man who also threatened to kill her.

The victim, 19-year-old Xuan, was handed a four-year jail term after the court found her guilty of intentional homicide in the death of Yang, whom she accused of trying to sexually assault her at his home in Guangdong province in May 2011.

Xuan told the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court that she was unable to purchase a train ticket to Xiamen (in Fujian province, about 850km from Guangdong) and was wandering aimlessly at the station when she met Yang.

She followed him back to his place when he offered her a room for the night. At his house, Yang told Xuan he wanted to have sex with her, but when she said no, he threatened to kill her if she refused.

In a bid to escape, she grabbed a knife and stabbed him. Xuan confessed to the court that before she ran away, she went back to Yang's body and stabbed him in the head several times to make sure he wouldn't be able to attack her.

In handling down his ruling, the judge concurred that Xuan's initial reaction was in self-defence. But he added, "She later committed the offence of intentional killing after she continued to stab Yang, who had been seriously wounded and had fallen to the ground dying."

Xuan's punishment sparked off a storm of criticism from China's netizens, many of whom demanded justice for Xuan.

"She was merely defending herself in a 'you die or I die' situation," said one commentator on Weibo. "In such situation, if I don't go all out to protect myself, then the person who dies will be me," said another user, Li Xiaoyou.

Yu Ji also posted on Weibo: "In that panicky moment, how could one person judge whether the man, although injured, would not wake up and hurt her again or not?"

Other netizens complained of the harsh sentencing even though Xuan received the lightest possible punishment. "Four years jail is just too long for a teenager. She could be placed on probation," said lawyer Yue Cheng. (China Daily)

No comments:

Post a Comment