US national sentenced to death in Ningbo for homicide

Shadeed Abdulmateen, an American national charged with intentional homicide, was sentenced to death in a first-instance trial according to a judgment statement from the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in East China's Zhejiang province on Thursday.

In early 2019 Abdulmateen, who worked as a teacher at a local college in Ningbo, met the victim, a woman surnamed Chen who was killed at the age of 21, falsely claiming he was divorced and single. He gradually established a relationship with Chen.

In May 2021, Chen tried to break up with Abdulmateen several times but he refused and threated her verbally.

At around 8 pm on June 14, 2021, having arranged to meet with Chen, Abdulmateen arrived at a sidewalk near a bus stop in Ningbo, carrying a folding knife with him.

At around 9:48 pm, he stabbed and cut Chen on her neck with his folding knife several times. After she was too weak to defend herself, Abdulmateen kept stabbing her face repeatedly, which resulted in her death by a hemorrhage.

According to the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court, the defendant killed Chen deliberately, which constitutes an intentional homicide. The court held it was a premeditated killing.

The Ningbo court said it had fully protected the defendant's litigation rights, including obtaining interpretation and visits by US consular officers in China. More than 20 people from all walks of life in Ningbo attended the trial.

Yu Yin in Ningbo contributed to this story.