China's top procuratorate approves prosecution of students in murder case

China's top procuratorate has approved the prosecution of three students in Handan, Hebei province who are suspected of killing their classmate, the provincial prosecutors said on Monday.

The approval means that the three minor suspects are expected to face criminal punishment in line with the Chinese Criminal Law.

The victim surnamed Wang, a seventh-grade student in Feixiang district of Handan, was killed on March 10. The next day, local police captured the three suspects surnamed Zhang, Li and Ma, respectively, according to a statement posted by the Hebei Provincial People's Procuratorate via its official WeChat account.

On March 21, the public security department in Feixiang transferred the case to local prosecutors to decide whether to prosecute the juveniles, the statement said.

After the review, the prosecutors concluded that the three should be held criminally responsible, as they were between 12 and 14 years old at the time of the offense and the circumstance of the killing was severe, it said.

Therefore, the provincial prosecutors submitted the decision of prosecution to the Supreme People's Procuratorate for approval, which is required by the Criminal Law, it added.

Under the law, offenders aged 12 to 14 should face criminal punishment for intentional homicide or intentional injury that leads to death or severely disables others, but it also clarifies that the decision to prosecute must be approved by the SPP.

The provincial prosecutors said in the statement that they have obtained the SPP's approval, pledging to strengthen efforts to prevent juvenile crimes while dealing with cases.

The Handan case has received huge attention among the public since it was reported last month, sparking heated discussions on the juvenile offenses and the plight of left-behind children.

Some Chinese media outlets previously reported that the body of the 13-year-old victim was found buried in a vegetable greenhouse in Feixiang's Zhangzhuang village, about 100 meters from the house of one of the three suspects. All the students involved in the case are left-behind minors.

On March 19, the Feixiang's public security department told China Central Television that the killing of the student was a premeditated crime, adding that the burial pit for the victim's body was 56 centimeters deep, and no evidence was discovered that indicated the involvement of adults in the crime.

The department added that to bury the body, the suspects dug in the abandoned greenhouse twice, on March 9 and 10, respectively.