An American teacher who taught English at a university in China was sentenced to death on Thursday for the “revenge killing” of his 21-year-old girlfriend.
Shadeed Abdulmateen, 52, lied to his girlfriend about being divorced, according to DailyMail.com.
A Chinese court found Abdulmateen guilty of “premeditated revenge killing” and intentional homicide.
The victim, known only as Chen, was a teenager when she met Abdulmateen, a professor from California who taught English at Ningbo University of Technology.
Chen tried multiple times to break off their relationship in May 2021, but she agreed to meet with him at a bus stop in Ningbo around 8 p.m. on June 14, 2021.
About two hours later, Chen’s mutilated body was found near the bus stop. She had been stabbed in the neck and face with a folding knife and was pronounced dead.
Locals expressed anger and outrage when the police were slow to charge Abdulmateen because he was a foreigner.
Hu Xijin, a former newspaper editor in China, said foreigners shouldn’t use their US citizenship like a “protective umbrella for them to escape punishment,” the South China Morning Post reported.
Unlike the US, China carries out thousands of executions per year.
