Chinese Millionaire Executed After Raping 25 Underage Schoolgirls

                              

A Chinese millionaire identified as Zhao Zhiyong, was executed on Tuesday after being found guilty of raping underage schoolgirls over a two year period. News of execution of the 49-year-old businessman who is said to be the former chairman of Tianyuan Flour Products in Weishi county, was posted outside the Kaifeng Intermediate People’s Court. The court found that Zhao coerced a woman named Li Na into finding young girls for him between June 2015 and January 2017. Some of the victims in turn went on to recruit more girls for Zhao.

The case came to public attention in April 2017 when a police brief, which gave sketchy details of the offences, was leaked online. Few details of the crime emerged until state news agency Xinhua, reported in December that Zhao had stood trial in the Kaifeng court in October and had been sentenced to death.

While the Chinese millionaire was executed for raping over 25 schoolgirls including 14 under the age of 14, Li received a suspended death sentence and her husband Liu Hongyang – who chauffeured the young girls for prostitution and raped some of them – was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. Another man, Zhou Hexin, who also had sex with some of the girls, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.