The Guardian-Three boys to face trial over childs murder in case that shocks China
April 8, 2024 2 min 419 words
这起令中国震惊的儿童谋杀案再次引发了公众对青少年犯罪处理方式的讨论。这三名14岁以下的儿童被指控在长时间内欺凌同班同学王某，最后在河北杀害了他。案件的细节揭示了法律如何处理被指控严重犯罪的未成年人。中国在2021年将刑事责任年龄从国际通行的14岁降低到12岁，适用于“特殊情况”，例如以“极其残忍的手段”致人死亡。然而，尽管刑事责任年龄降低，但18岁以下的人不能被判处死刑。这一案例再次提醒我们，我们必须更加重视农村留守儿童的问题，他们的父母往往在外地工作，他们更容易面临心理健康问题，犯罪行为和被欺凌的风险。我们需要更全面的社会保障体系，以及更有效的法律手段来保护这些最脆弱的群体。
China will put three boys on trial for allegedly murdering another child, a provincial prosecutor has said, in a case that has shocked the country and sparked public debate over the treatment of juvenile offenders.
The three suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, are accused of bullying a 13-year-old middle-school classmate surnamed Wang over a long period before killing him last month in Hebei.
The details of the case, in which the killers reportedly buried Wang’s body in an abandoned greenhouse, drew public attention to how the law deals with juveniles accused of serious crimes.
China lowered its age of criminal responsibility in 2021 from the international norm of 14 to 12 for “special cases” such as inflicting death by “extremely cruel means”.
Wang’s father has called on social media for his son’s killers to “pay with their lives”.
Under Chinese law, murder is punishable by imprisonment or the death penalty, but those under 18 cannot be given the death penalty despite the lowered age of criminal responsibility.
One of the first applications of the lower age limit is in a case from 2022 in which a boy in Gansu, who was 13 at the time, stands accused of murdering his eight-year-old neighbour. The supreme people’s procuratorate, China’s top public prosecutor, approved an application last month to hold the boy criminally responsible if found guilty, but there is yet to be a verdict in the case.
The Gansu and the Hebei case involve “left behind children” – those who are left in the countryside with family members while the parents go to the cities to work. Data from the 2020 census shows that there are nearly 67 million such children, who are at higher risk of mental health problems, criminal behaviour and being bullied.
The provincial prosecutor said on Monday that it had received a police request last month to criminally try the suspects in Hebei, surnamed Zhang, Li and Ma.
It said it had concluded that the three were between 12 and 14 when they “intentionally committed murder, causing the death of the victim Wang”.
“The circumstances were serious and they should be held criminally responsible,” it said, adding that the country’s top public prosecutor had reviewed the decision.
“While handling cases strictly in accordance with the law, the procuratorial organs will ... further strengthen the prevention and treatment of juvenile crimes,” it said.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report, with additional research by Chi Hui Lin