A Chinese couple has been executed after they threw their two toddlers to their deaths off a 15th-floor balcony.
The father, Zhang Bo, murdered his kids after his new girlfriend, Ye Chengchen, told him she saw them as a "burden on their future together." The couple were sentenced to death in 2021 over the fatal falls in 2020 of two children from the 15th floor of a residential tower in southwest China's Chongqing.
Zhang had begun an affair with Ye, who was initially unaware he was married and had children. She then urged Zhang to kill his two children, whom she "regarded as obstacles" to their getting married and a "burden on their future life together", according to a statement from the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People's Court. It was not clear how the couple were executed, but the most common method in China is lethal injection.
Zhang claimed at the time that he was asleep when Zhang Ruixue, two, and Zhang Yangrui, one, fell out of the window and said he was woken up by people shouting downstairs after discovering the bodies on a grass lawn. He was filmed at the time banging his head on the wall and crying uncontrollably, which prosecutors said was all a sham.
The little girl died instantly, while the baby boy died shortly after from his injuries. The children's mother, Chen Meilin, told local media that Zhang asked to look after his daughter on the day that he killed both of them despite the former couple sharing custody, with the mother taking care of the girl and the father of the boy.
I was hypnotised and woke up singing in a language I can't speak, I'm so confused
Zhang Ruixue, two, and Zhang Yangrui, one, were pushed off a balcony (311x16y/AsiaWire)Chen said to local media: "At that time, Zhang was on a video phone call with Ye. She slit her wrists and then Zhang got scared. The phone was dropped, he picked up the two children, and threw them from the balcony." According to local media, the father admitted he and Ye had plotted to kill the children so that they could start a new family without any children from his former marriage.
Chen claimed her ex-husband cried in court and apologised for his actions while his girlfriend denied accusations against her many times. Both were found guilty of conspiring "to kill his daughter and younger son by staging an accidental fall from the 15th floor of his apartment building", state-backed China Daily reported last year.
Father Zhang Bo with his girlfriend Ye Chengchen before the horrifying incident (AsiaWire)China keeps data on its use of the death penalty secret, although rights group Amnesty International estimates the country is the top executioner globally. They say: "The use of the death penalty remained shrouded in secrecy in several countries, including China, North Korea, and Viet Nam — countries that are known to use the death penalty extensively — meaning that the true global figure is far higher.
"While the precise number of those killed in China is unknown, it is clear that the country remained the world’s most prolific executioner, ahead of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA."
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