Chinese judge stabbed to death by a disgruntled ‘old friend’
- Suspect in killing of Zhou Chunmei might have been seeking revenge after judge refused to support her appeal against a court ruling that upheld her employer’s decision to sack her, reports say
- Zhou, a 45-year-old mother of two, was found dead from multiple stab wounds in a garage at her home in central China
A judge was stabbed to death at her home in central China on Tuesday morning, with police saying an “old friend” of the victim had been detained in what appeared to have been an act of revenge linked to a lost court case.
Zhou Chunmei, a 45-year-old mother of two, was found dead at about 7.30am in her garage, police in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, said in a statement. She had suffered multiple stab wounds.
A 44-year-old woman described as “an old friend of Zhou” was apprehended at the scene.
Newspaper reports said a preliminary investigation suggested the suspect might have been seeking revenge after Zhou refused to support her efforts to launch a judicial appeal against a court ruling on a labour dispute that cost her her job.
Zhou, who was a judge at the Hunan Higher People’s Court’s judicial supervision division, had not been involved in the initial hearings.
While the police did not name their suspect, Chinese media identified her as Xiang Wei, an architect based in Changsha. According to a report by Hua Shang Daily, just five days before the killing, the suspect had taken up a position as a cleaning woman at the apartment complex where Zhou lived.
