Photo taken on May 11 shows the Chongqing High People's Court in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. (Photo/Deng Rui, China Daily)
A father in Chongqing who killed his two children by tossing them out of a high-rise apartment window in 2020 along with his girlfriend, who prompted him, were both sentenced to death on Thursday.
The court dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment in the murder case of Zhang Bo and his girlfriend, Ye Chengchen. The rulings will be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval.
The lower court found that Zhang and Ye conspired to kill two toddlers, a girl and a younger boy, by staging an "accidental" fall on Nov 2, 2020.
The court held that their motive was despicable and the means was brutal, resulting in an "extremely" bad social influence.
The Chongqing No 5 Intermediate People's Court handed down the death penalty in its original judgment in December 2021. Both defendants appealed the ruling after the first trial.
On April 6 this year, the second trial for Zhang and Ye began at the Chongqing Higher People's Court.
According to the mother of the slain children, Zhang wrote four letters to her from prison expressing his remorse and asking for forgiveness. She wrote in her reply that "the most sincere redemption is to accept the verdict and die".
The case sparked outrage online and has drawn intense public attention in China, with many infuriated netizens calling for the death penalty without reprieve.