Mainland China court sentences kidnappers of Bossini heiress to between 22 months and 15 years in jail
Ruling comes month after Hong Kong court sentenced another man involved in the abduction last year of Queenie Rosita Law to 12 years imprisonment
A Shenzhen court on Friday jailed seven mainlanders and a Hongkonger for up to 15 years for their roles in the high-profile kidnap of Bossini clothes chain heiress Queenie Law.
Dai Xunhui, the only Hong Kong member of the gang, was jailed for one year and 10 months by the Shenzhen Intermediate Court and fined 10,000 yuan (HK$11,645) for covering up
illegal proceeds. Dai was paid for delivering stolen jewellery from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.
The gang’s ringleader, You Dunkui, 39, was jailed for 15 years and fined 100,000 yuan.
The other three kidnappers – Wang Yukun, Wang Libo and Xiong Denghui – were each jailed for 13 years and fined 80,000 yuan, 60,000 yuan and 40,000 yuan respectively.
Zhang Aojian and Mao Xiaobing, also charged with kidnapping, were jailed for 10 years and fined 20,000 yuan each.
Liang Qishun was jailed for three years and fined 100,000 yuan for covering up illegal proceeds.
In a written ruling, the judge said the eight were sentenced based on the facts of the case, criminal nature, circumstances and “degree of harm to society”. They men were given 10 days to appeal.
“It has finally come to an end and it’s time to look ahead,” Law said through a spokesman, adding that she respected the court’s decision.
The kidnap-for-ransom case gripped the city on April 25 last year, when a group of men broke into a Sai Kung house to kidnap the 29-year-old granddaughter of late Bossini founder Law Ting-pong. She was asleep with her boyfriend.
The gang, whose original target was Queenie Law’s mother, tied up the woman’s boyfriend and abducted Law along with jewellery valued at HK$3 million taken from a safe in her home.
They held Law hostage in a cave for four days and eventually freed her in return for a ransom of HK$28 million.
Zheng Xingwang, the only one of the eight to face justice in Hong Kong, was jailed for 12 years in June for his role in what a judge described as a “wicked and heinous” crime.
Another mainlander, identified only by his surname Jiang, was sentenced to two years and three months by a different Shenzhen court two months ago for arranging the gang’s illicit cross-border movement.
In June, the court which sentenced the eight heard they had initially demanded up to HK$58 million to secure Law’s release, but that amount was whittled down to HK$28 million.
Almost the entire ransom was recovered later.
Law told mainland investigators in a statement that at one point she feared for her life.
After a phone call with her father arranged by the kidnappers, “one of them turned very angry”, she said. “I feared they would kill me.”
