Police 'sorry' as petition calls for action in 19-year-old case
By Xu Chi |
May 9, 2013, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Beijing police said yesterday that they were "deeply sorry" for their failure to solve a 19-year-old case in which a student was left paralyzed after being poisoned, due to "a lack of evidence."
They also denied any "outside intervention" when investigating the case back then, in an apparent response to online rumors that higher authorities had spiked the efforts to wrap up the case.
The suspect at the time, a roommate of the student at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, was from a family with "political background." Her uncle Sun Fuling was a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference when Zhu was poisoned. He was previously vice mayor of Beijing.
A petition posted on the US White House website had attracted more than 137,000 signatures by 9pm yesterday. It calls for Obama's administration to "investigate and deport Jasmine Sun," or Sun Wei, the former suspect who is believed to be married and living in the US.
As the petition has attracted more than 100,000 signatures, the Obama administration will have to issue a response.
Zhu Ling, now 39, was a chemistry student at Tsinghua University in 1994.
She suffered neurological damage due to thallium poisoning that has left her unable to take care of herself, with facial paralysis and the loss of almost all her speech and eyesight.
Thallium, a soft metal, dissolves in water and is odorless and tasteless with a history of use as a murder weapon.
At the time, jealousy of Zhu's talent and beauty was said to be the motive behind the poisoning.
The Beijing police announcement on its official microblog said the university reported the case on May 5, 1995, and it had been treated as a criminal case in which someone had poisoned Zhu.
The police said they had interviewed more than 130 people and investigated more than 100 facilities using or selling thallium salt.
"But the trace and physical evidence in the crime scene had been destroyed as it was nearly six months after Zhu was first found suffering poisoning conditions and the area was not equipped with any surveillance cameras," the statement said.
"Although the officers tried their best to investigate the case, still they could not find direct evidence that could help to confirm the suspect despite all possible criminal investigation measures at that time," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the special investigation team handled the case justly and in accordance with the law and did not receive interference from outside, it stated.
It sometimes applies that some cases can never be solved due to various objective conditions, such as the loss of evidence, said the police, urging the public to look on the case in a rational and objective way, Xinhua news agency reported.
But the police announcement sparked more anger. "Just with a simple 'sorry' so you can close the case and allow the criminal to be still at large?" was one online comment.
In April, Sun attracted public attention after a former classmate of Zhu's published a document allegedly found when someone hacked into Sun's e-mail inbox in 2006.
In the two-page document, Sun was said to have encouraged friends and classmates to publish online posts supporting her to prove her innocence.
At that time, Sun again issued a denial that she had been the poisoner in the 1994 case.
They also denied any "outside intervention" when investigating the case back then, in an apparent response to online rumors that higher authorities had spiked the efforts to wrap up the case.
The suspect at the time, a roommate of the student at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, was from a family with "political background." Her uncle Sun Fuling was a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference when Zhu was poisoned. He was previously vice mayor of Beijing.
A petition posted on the US White House website had attracted more than 137,000 signatures by 9pm yesterday. It calls for Obama's administration to "investigate and deport Jasmine Sun," or Sun Wei, the former suspect who is believed to be married and living in the US.
As the petition has attracted more than 100,000 signatures, the Obama administration will have to issue a response.
Zhu Ling, now 39, was a chemistry student at Tsinghua University in 1994.
She suffered neurological damage due to thallium poisoning that has left her unable to take care of herself, with facial paralysis and the loss of almost all her speech and eyesight.
Thallium, a soft metal, dissolves in water and is odorless and tasteless with a history of use as a murder weapon.
At the time, jealousy of Zhu's talent and beauty was said to be the motive behind the poisoning.
The Beijing police announcement on its official microblog said the university reported the case on May 5, 1995, and it had been treated as a criminal case in which someone had poisoned Zhu.
The police said they had interviewed more than 130 people and investigated more than 100 facilities using or selling thallium salt.
"But the trace and physical evidence in the crime scene had been destroyed as it was nearly six months after Zhu was first found suffering poisoning conditions and the area was not equipped with any surveillance cameras," the statement said.
"Although the officers tried their best to investigate the case, still they could not find direct evidence that could help to confirm the suspect despite all possible criminal investigation measures at that time," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the special investigation team handled the case justly and in accordance with the law and did not receive interference from outside, it stated.
It sometimes applies that some cases can never be solved due to various objective conditions, such as the loss of evidence, said the police, urging the public to look on the case in a rational and objective way, Xinhua news agency reported.
But the police announcement sparked more anger. "Just with a simple 'sorry' so you can close the case and allow the criminal to be still at large?" was one online comment.
In April, Sun attracted public attention after a former classmate of Zhu's published a document allegedly found when someone hacked into Sun's e-mail inbox in 2006.
In the two-page document, Sun was said to have encouraged friends and classmates to publish online posts supporting her to prove her innocence.
At that time, Sun again issued a denial that she had been the poisoner in the 1994 case.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
