Tangshan restaurant attack suspect was wanted by Chinese authorities over previous crimes
- One of the man accused of attacking women in a restaurant was named as a fugitive in court records over a previous assault
- Local media also published records showing that the man, Chen Jizhi, had been blacklisted for not paying debts
One of the suspects in a brutal attack against women diners at a barbecue restaurant in China’s northern city of Tangshan was wanted by the police over other crimes and had been blacklisted as a dishonest debtor, government records show.
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9 arrested over fierce attack on women in Tangshan
Government records showed that he was listed as a fugitive in a judgment over an assault for which he was not convicted. A man named Liu Tao was found guilty of attacking the man at a property owned by Chen in 2015 and jailed for two years and one month.
The judgment in the case, issued in 2018, said several other people took part in the attack. Chen never appeared in court and was named as a fugitive in the official records.
In an interview with Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly on Tuesday, the victim of the 2015 attack, identified as a man named Shang Huikai, said that he recognised Chen as one of the men who had beaten him up.
Chen had promised compensation but then disappeared, Shang told the newspaper.