Chinese woman gets life for killing boyfriend, preserving body

A northeast China woman who lived under sentence of death for four years after she was convicted of murdering her boyfriend and preserving his body has had her sentence commuted to life in jail.

The Higher People's Court of Liaoning Province upheld an earlier verdict and sentenced Wei Qiuju to life imprisonment for the murder of Wu Qing, 30, and ordered her to pay compensation of 257,600 yuan (37,700 U.S. dollars) to the victim's family, said court spokesman Zhang Zhiku on Tuesday.

Wei killed Wu by battering his head with a wooden pole and slitting his wrists with a knife after quarreling in 2002.

She preserved his body with salt and farm chemicals and wrapped it in a bamboo mat.

Wei was arrested three months later after police found Wu's body in his home.

Wei was sentenced to death in the first-instance trial at Shenyang Intermediate People's Court in 2004 and 2005. But the higher court ordered two rehearings because of "insufficient evidence and unclear facts" in 2005 and 2007.

Wei was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 2008 after the third trial.

Wei appealed after the first three trials, saying she had found Wu already dead and she had preserved the body to help the police investigation.

The higher court again declined to approve the third sentence.

A fourth trial was held at the intermediate court in April 2009, after which Wei was sentenced to life in prison. Wei did not appeal, but Wu's family lodged an appeal to the higher court, asking for more compensation.

Source: Xinhua