A US citizen, Shadeed Abdulmateen, was sentenced to death yesterday by a court in China for the murder of his girlfriend, a 21-year-old woman surnamed Chen.
He had stabbed the victim in her face and neck several times last year while trying to settle their disagreements over their relationship.
They met in 2019 and started dating after that, but the victim then wanted to break up with Shadeed,
Chen proposed breaking up many times between mid to late May last year, but Shadeed refused and verbally threatened her.
They then met in June 2021 near a bus stop in Ningbo, where Shadeed brought a foldable knife and stabbed her.
The court said that “Shadeed premediated a revenge killing, stabbing and cutting Chen’s face and neck multiple times, causing Chen’s death.”
The most recent case of a westerner being sentenced to death in China was in 2009, when a British citizen Akmal Shaikh was executed for heroin trafficking.