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Official gets life for drowning son

By Jane Chen | June 8, 2010, Tuesday | Online Edition

A GOVERNMENT worker in northwest China has been jailed for life for drowning his 14-year-old son by throwing him into the Yellow River.

Gansu Province Higher People's Court upheld the verdict in the first hearing by Lanzhou City Intermediate People's Court, today's Lanzhou Morning Post reported.

Fan Zhaoyan, 40, a worker with Jinshan District Personnel Bureau in Jinchang City, Gansu, divorced his wife surnamed Jiang in 2003, leaving her living with their son, the court was told.

He then married a colleague surnamed Liu and lived with Liu's daughter.

But a series of family troubles came as his son hated Liu and forced Fan to divorce her and stay with him alone, Fan told the court.

Fan blamed the son's hatred on his former wife.

The trouble came to a height last February when Fan beat up Liu and forced her and her daughter to leave home. He then took his son to Lanzhou and left behind a suicide note.

On February 18, he threw his son into the Yellow River and then jumped in attempting to commit suicide.

The son was drowned, but Fan was pushed ashore by the current. He then surrendered to police.

He said the only way to stay alone with his son was for the two of them to die together, the report said.

The Lanzhou court sentenced him to life last December. He appealed to the higher court for a second trial, saying the sentence was "abnormally severe."

But the higher court upheld the first verdict, saying it was appropriate as the intermediate court had already shown leniency to him after taking into account his surrender to police.
Nation


 

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