Two Sentenced To Death For Poisoning Children In China

A court in China ruled on Monday that two kung fu coaches who were arrested in 2023 for a 1997 poisoning that killed seven youngsters be given death sentences.

Due to a disagreement over business with the school’s boss, the guys poisoned meals at a martial arts school in the eastern Anhui Province of China with rat poison. They then managed to avoid punishment for almost 26 years.

Naija News reports that in an online announcement, the Intermediate People’s Court in the city of Ma’anshan stated that defendants Fu Zejie and Zhu Zulin were both “sentenced to death for the crime of poisoning.”

The court stated that a conflict arose between Zhu and another individual with the last name Peng in “around 1994” while they were operating rival martial arts schools in the vicinity.

In 1996, Fu started working as a coach at Peng’s facility, but the court stated that Fu “gradually became dissatisfied with Peng… due to trivial matters.”

On June 29, 1997, the two defendants planned to use two packets of rat poison to poison Peng’s school lunch as payback for their grievances.

After eating breakfast, over 130 students at the school had convulsions and vomiting the following morning, according to a report by the state-run publication China Daily.

The toxin killed seven students.

Although the two criminals, Fu in the eastern province of Fujian and Zhu in the southwest province of Guizhou, were recognized by the authorities as suspects, they were not taken into custody until May 2023.