This news item shocked China and opened the debate on the judicial response to juvenile crime.
A crime of exceptional cruelty
A court in Hebei Province on Monday sentenced a teenager to life imprisonment for murder of his classmate. This affair deeply shocked the Chine. This drama, involving three adolescents, rekindles the debate on the criminal responsibility of minors in the country. In April, the three teenagers, aged under 14 at the time of the incident, harassed a 13-year-old friend named Wang before killing him with a shovel. The victim’s body was buried in an abandoned greenhouse. The court described the murder as “ particularly cruel » and a method “odious”justifying an exemplary sanction, reports Le Figaro.
Differentiated penalties depending on the involvement
The case marks one of the first applications of China’s 2021 law lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in particularly cruel murder cases. This legislative development reflects a desire to respond firmly to serious crimes, even when their perpetrators are very young. Zhang, convicted of intentional homicide, received a life sentence. Li, his accomplice, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The third adolescent, judged to be less involved, will have to undergo a correctional education sentence.
A national debate on juvenile crime
The methodical details of this crime provoked strong emotion in Chineemphasizing the need to better supervise minors and to reassess educational and judicial policies. If murder can be punished by the death penalty in China, the sanctions applied in this case demonstrate the difficulty of balancing justice and rehabilitation in the face of juvenile crime.
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