A court in southwest China’s Guizhou Province has upheld the death penalty for Yu Huaying, a woman convicted of abducting and trafficking 17 children, during a second trial held on Thursday.
Yu, along with her accomplices, was found guilty of abducting children from Guizhou, Chongqing, and Yunnan and selling them for profit in Handan, a city in Hebei Province, between 1993 and 2003.
In September 2023, the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court initially sentenced Yu to death after determining her involvement in trafficking 11 children. She filed an immediate appeal.
Following new evidence brought forward by police implicating Yu in additional trafficking cases, the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court conducted a second trial in November 2023. Subsequently, in January 2024, the court ordered a retrial.
The retrial, carried out by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court in October 2024, revealed that the number of trafficked children had increased from 11 to 17. Once again, Yu was sentenced to death, prompting her to file another appeal.
On Thursday, the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court dismissed her appeal and reaffirmed the death sentence. The decision will now be submitted to the Supreme People’s Court for final review and approval.
In addition to the death penalty, Yu was permanently stripped of her political rights, and all her personal property has been confiscated.
