Three boys under 14 years old have been arrested in connection with a crime that has horrified China. The teens in Handan, northern China, are accused of murdering a 13-year-old classmate and leaving his body under a tarp in an abandoned vegetable greenhouse, the AP reports. The boy's father said he had been bullied by the other boys for a long time and had been forced to transfer all the funds from his phone, around $17, to one of the boys on March 10, the last day he was seen alive, reports the BBC. Authorities say the three students led investigators to the boy's body after they were confronted with evidence of the money transfer and surveillance footage showing them with the victim.
The victim and the other three boys are known as "left-behind children"—children who are left with grandparents in rural areas when their parents go to work in distant cities, per the BBC. Authorities have identified the victim only by his surname, Wang. The crime has raised concerns about the welfare of such children and led to debate about issues including young people's exposure to violent content online. The three suspects were arrested on March 11. Because they are over 12 but under 14, the country's top public prosecutor will have to approve their prosecution and they will not be eligible for the death penalty, the state-run Global Times reports.
"He was beaten alive and his body was disfigured beyond recognition," Wang's father wrote on the social media platform Douyin, per the AP. "I hope the government will be fair, open and just, punish them severely, and that the killers will pay with their lives." In a post addressing his son, he wrote: "Your father isn't scared, he is only upset and furious," adding, "Wait for your father to avenge you!" (More China stories.)
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