Pair sentenced for murder of Taiwanese man

By Yang Lifei  |   2008-10-15  |     ONLINE EDITION

A KARAOKE bar hostess's ex-husband was sentenced to death and the woman was handed a 15-year jail term for kidnapping and murdering a Taiwanese man, Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court announced yesterday.

The court also ordered the man’s assets to be confiscated and fined the woman 30,000 yuan (US$4,285).

Zhang Mei, a hostess from Jiangsu Province, met the victim, who the court identified as Chen, at a nightclub at the end of 2006. After Li Yongqian, Zhang’s ex-husband, learned of the relationship, he came up with the idea to blackmail the Taiwanese businessman, who lived in Shanghai.

Li, an ex-convict, and Zhang kidnapped the man on May 2, 2007, the court said.

Zhang called the victim with a cell phone purchased specifically for the kidnapping and lured Chen to her home using the excuse that she wanted to return some money she had borrowed. When the victim arrived, Li entered the room and the two bound his hands and feet.

Zhang found 2,000 yuan and a bank card on the victim. After forcing Chen to tell them the pin number, Zhang went to a bank only to discover 80 yuan in the account.

The pair threatened to call the man’s family and friends to demand ransom of 200,000 yuan, the court said.

When Chen resisted, Li murdered him and dismembered his body, the court said, without providing further details.

After concealing the body parts in the mud at a nearby river, the pair fled to Jiangyin in Jiangsu Province, where they were caught by police two weeks later.

Li had been previously convicted of robbery and manslaughter. After being released from jail in October 2005 he started to live with his ex-wife Zhang. Li was unemployed, the court said.