Chinese couple threw children out of window

CHINA has executed a couple for throwing two young children out of the window of an apartment building, in a case that caused nationwide outrage.

Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen were previously found responsible for the fatal falls of the two-year-old girl and one-year-old boy from the 15th floor of a residential tower in Chongqing, south-west China.

Zhang, the father of the two children, had begun an affair with Ye, who had been initially unaware he was married with children. She then urged Zhang to kill his two children, whom she “regarded as obstacles” to them marrying and a “burden on their future life together”, the Chongqing No5 Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement.

In November 2020, Zhang threw his children out of the window of the apartment in the absence of their mother, with whom he had agreed to divorce.

Both were found guilty of conspiring “to kill his daughter and younger son by staging an accidental fall from the 15th floor of his apartment building”, newspaper reported last year.

The couple were sentenced to death in December 2021 and executed on Wednesday, the court said.

The news came on the same day as another high-profile execution. Wu Xieyu was found guilty of killing his mother by repeatedly striking her with a dumbbell in 2015, a statement by a court in eastern Fujian province said.

China keeps data on its use of the death penalty secret, although Amnesty International estimates that the country is the top executioner globally, with thousands executed and sentenced to death each year.