13-year-olds kill peers: this is how long the perpetrators must spend behind bars!

By Johannes Neudecker

Handan (China) - In March, the killing of a schoolboy by his peers shakes the entire country. A court reaches its first verdict. The judges resorted to a special ruling.

The 13-year-old victim was discovered dead in a greenhouse.
The 13-year-old victim was discovered dead in a greenhouse.  © Bildmontage/Screenshot/Weibo/澎湃新闻

A 13-year-old boy was sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of a peer. An accomplice, also 13 years old, must serve twelve years behind bars, as Chinese state television reported, citing the court in the northern Chinese city of Handan.

The judges acquitted a third accused boy (13), but ordered special education for him.

The case had caused great consternation in China in March 2024. Police had discovered the victim buried in an abandoned greenhouse near Handan, a city with over a million inhabitants in the south of Hebei province.

The boy, who had been sentenced to special education, had led the officers there.

Deed previously planned

One perpetrator must spend life behind bars, another twelve years in prison. (symbolic image)
One perpetrator must spend life behind bars, another twelve years in prison. (symbolic image)  © Johannes Neudecker/dpa

According to the court, the other two convicts had an argument with the victim and conspired to kill the student and divide his money among themselves, as reported by state television.

They are said to have lured the boy into the greenhouse, where he was killed with a shovel by one of the perpetrators with the help of the second. The third boy was initially present but then left the greenhouse. The police arrested all three boys a day later.

The court considered the circumstances of the crime to be particularly cruel. Due to a special paragraph in the Chinese penal code, two of the boys could be prosecuted even though they were under 14 years old at the time of the crime.

This would be different in Germany, where all children under the age of 14 are not yet criminally liable.