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HEALTH-VIRUS-CHINA-CRIME-COURT
Chinese man sentenced to death for virus checkpoint killing
BEIJING, March 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A Chinese court has sentenced a man
to death for fatally stabbing two officials at a checkpoint set up to control
the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak.
The virus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed nearly 3,000
in mainland China — prompting a wide network of temperature checks, travel
restrictions, residential checks and closures nationwide.
Many villages and communities have also implemented their own blockades
and tough measures to keep people out, fearful that travellers could infect
their communities.
On Sunday a court handed down a death sentence to a 23-year-old man
after he stabbed two officials at one local village checkpoint.
The incident happened on February 6 when Ma Jianguo was driving a
minivan through a checkpoint at Luo Meng village in Honghe, southwestern
Yunnan province, where he was stopped.
After Ma refused to cooperate with officials, his passenger began trying
to remove the roadblock, the court said, and the local official started
filming Ma and the other man on his mobile phone.
A furious Ma stabbed the official — a local poverty alleviation cadre –
– in the chest and abdomen with a knife he carried with him and then attacked
another official who came to the victim’s aid.
The two men died from their wounds.
The court statement said that although Ma had “voluntarily surrendered
and truthfully confessed”, the killings were “extremely vicious”.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1159 hrs