An American was sentenced to death in China on Thursday for the stabbing murder of his 21-year-old Chinese girlfriend who threatened to leave him, a court heard. The number of people executed each year in the Asian country is a state secret. But the death penalty of citizens of Western countries is rare.
The convict, Shadeed Abdulmateen, had met his victim in 2019 before starting a romantic relationship with her, said in a press release the Intermediate People’s Court of Ningbo (east), the city where the tragedy took place. In May 2021, the young woman had announced to her companion that she wanted to break up, but the latter did not accept it and made “verbal threats” against her, according to the same source.
“A wild method”
The following month, he arranged to meet her one evening at a bus stop, before fatally hitting her in the neck and face with a knife. “Defendant Shadeed Abdulmateen was sentenced to death for intentional homicide,” said the court, which castigated “premeditated revenge”. “The motives (of the accused) were sordid, his criminal intent proven, the method used savage and the circumstances of the crime heinous”. The US Embassy in China did not immediately comment on the incident.
China reduced the number of crimes punishable by death from 55 to 46 in 2015. These still include separatism, intentional homicide, rape and drug trafficking, but now exclude pimping or arms smuggling. The most recent execution of a Western passport holder is that of Akmal Shaikh, a Briton executed in 2009 for trafficking heroin, according to the official news agency Chine nouvelle.
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