From life in prison to seven years – that was the announcement from China this week in the appeal trial for Amanda Zhao’s killer Ang Li.
As the NOW previously reported, Zhao was living in a Burnaby basement suite in 2002 with her boyfriend, Li, and his cousin, when the two men reported her missing to the RCMP. Eleven days later, her body was found stuffed into a suitcase near Stave Lake in Mission. Li was charged with her murder in 2003 but by that time had fled to China, and Canadian officials couldn’t have him extradited. More than a decade after Zhao was killed, Li was arrested in China, found guilty of her murder in a Bejing court, and sentenced to life in prison.
Li quickly appealed the court’s verdict and this week NDP MLA Jenny Kwan received the 30-page ruling from the high court in Bejing. The results of the ruling were announced at a press conference on Monday.
The ruling stated that while the court believed Li killed Zhao back in 2002, the evidence presented did not merit a first-degree murder charge but rather the lesser charge of manslaughter. Judges also considered the fact that Li and Zhao were dating and that a pillow fight had gotten out of control as important facts in the case.
“We neither understand, nor accept the ruling. The ruling changes our opinion about the fairness of the law,” Zhao's mother, Yang Baoying, said in a statement read by Kwan at the conference. “The ruling abundantly represents that the law can be bought with power or money in China. We have no choice but to question the law in China. We will not stand by, waiting for them to undermine the law in China. We will continue our very long and arduous journey of pursuing justice.”
Kwan and fellow NDP MLA Mike Farnworth told media it is unlikely further justice can be pursued at this time as the case had reached the highest level of court in China.
The Chinese court’s decision means that Li, who now goes by the name Jia-ming Li, will be released from prison in 2016.
– With files from the Vancouver Sun
