Death sentence against child trafficker upheld
Print Edition
A COURT in southwest China’s Guizhou Province upheld the death sentence for Yu Huaying, a woman convicted of abducting and trafficking 17 children, in a second trial yesterday.
Yu was found to have abducted children from Guizhou, Chongqing City and Yunnan Province along with her accomplices, and sold them for profit in Handan, Hebei Province, between 1993 and 2003.
Yu was initially sentenced to death by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court in September 2023 after being found guilty of abducting and trafficking 11 children.
Yu immediately appealed.
In November 2023, the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court held a second trial and, in January 2024, ordered a retrial of the case after the police discovered that Yu was implicated in more child trafficking cases.
The retrial, conducted in October by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court, revealed that the number of children involved in the case had risen from 11 to 17.
Yu was once again sentenced to death and, as before, submitted another appeal.
Yesterday, the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court rejected her appeal and reaffirmed the death sentence.
The ruling will be submitted to the Supreme People’s Court for examination and approval.
Yu was also deprived of her political rights for life and all of her personal property will be confiscated.
Yu, born in Yunnan in 1963, colluded with a man surnamed Gong, who died during the course of the investigation.
Together, they abducted children from Chongqing, Yunnan, and Guizhou, and sold them in other provinces between 1993 and 2003.
Among the 17 trafficked children, five pairs were siblings. Yu’s first victim was her own son, whom she sold for 5,000 yuan (US$707).
The Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court, in the first-instance verdict in September last year, deemed her actions to constitute child abduction, noting the particularly severe criminal circumstances and the profound negative impact on society.
Yu appealed the decision to a higher court.
Yu was arrested by police in June 2022 following a complaint from Yang Niuhua, a woman who was snatched by Yu in Guizhou and sold in Hebei in 1995 for 2,500 yuan.
Yang, 34, had been trying to find her biological family when her efforts paid off in 2021 when a cousin saw her video on social media.
After a successful DNA match, Yang was reunited with her family 26 years later. Tragically, her parents had passed away in 1997 and 1998.
She went to Guiyang police to file a complaint about her abduction in 2022. Yu was caught shortly after and prosecuted in February 2023.
Yang attended the trial yesterday, hoping that Yu would receive severe punishment and that the death sentence would be upheld to deter other child traffickers.
Reflecting on the devastation caused to families and her deceased parents, Yang told China Central Television, “How could I not hate?”
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