Girlfriend of notorious armed robber denies aiding him

The girlfriend of the mainland's most notorious armed robber in recent years stood trial at a court in Chongqing yesterday, charged with harbouring a suspect, hiding illegal income and other crimes, China News Service reported.

Zhang Guiying's boyfriend, Zhou Kehua , was gunned down on a backstreet not far from the court by two undercover police officers in August, ending an eight-year spree of violent crime in Chongqing, Hunan and Jiangsu that claimed the lives of 11 people, including a solider and policeman.

Prosecutors told the Shapingba district court that Zhang, a 21-year-old masseuse from rural Yibin, Sichuan , had accompanied Zhou to Chongqing in July. He killed and robbed two people in front of a bank in the southwestern municipality a month later.

Zhang kept in touch with Zhou by mobile phone, helped him buy make-up to disguise himself and deposited the money he stole in her bank accounts, prosecutors alleged.

Zhang denied all the charges, saying that she was unaware of her boyfriend's true identity or that he was wanted by the police. She said Zhou had shown her a pistol only once.

Prosecutors said Zhang had been aware of Zhou's crimes and had even helped him dodge the police manhunt.

They said Zhang had become Zhou's girlfriend in April and had received money from him on regular basis, sometimes as much as 10,000 yuan a week.

Though Zhou initially told Zhang that his money came from his wealthy family, he eventually revealed his true identity to her and all the crimes he had committed, prosecutors said.

But Zhang's lawyer said she was innocent.

Yao Fei, a lawyer based in Chengdu , Sichuan, said that there was not enough evidence to prove that Zhang was aware that the money given to her by Zhou came from robberies. He said Zhang had not been staying with Zhou in Chongqing. As their contact remained confined to mobile phone calls, she should not be charged with harbouring a criminal.

Yao also said that Zhang had only known Zhou for four months, too short for her to know about the crimes he committed.