The man who killed Amanda Zhao in B.C. in 2002 had his sentence reduced to seven years from life imprisonment after a Chinese court changed his verdict from murder to manslaughter.
It appears the high court in Beijing — there is no other level of appeal — found the evidence did not substantiate a first-degree murder charge, according to a 30-page ruling obtained by NDP MLAs who have been helping the family in their legal fight.
The ruling shows that while the appeal court found boyfriend Ang Li did kill Zhao, the judges appear to have taken into consideration the fact the pair were boyfriend and girlfriend and a pillow fight had gone awry in determining intent to murder.
The reduced sentence means that Li will get out of jail in June of 2016.
The ruling, released Monday in China, was immediately criticized by Zhao's family in a statement read by NDP MLA Jenny Kwan, who helped the family get public attention for the murder of their daughter.
The family said the first ruling in 2012 made them feel the law was fair and just, but this ruling was unacceptable.
"We neither understand, nor accept the ruling. The ruling changes our opinion about the fairness of the law," Zhao's mother, Yang Baoying, said in the statement.
"The ruling abundantly represents that the law can be bought with power or money in China. We have no choice but to question the law in China. We will not stand by, waiting for them to undermine the law in China. We will continue our very long and arduous journey of pursuing justice," she said.
However, Kwan and NDP MLA Mike Farnworth, and community advocate Gabriel Yiu, acknowledged there were likely no other avenues to pursue the case as the high court in China is the final level of justice.
They also said they were not questioning the high court's decision as they do not know all the details.
Asked about the threshold for a first-degree murder conviction in China, Yiu said is similar to that in Canada, where a conviction has to show the murder was planned and deliberate.
However, Yiu noted it took about two years for the high court to release a decision, when normally it takes months.
Also, he was told by the family, that a military official, the "boss" of Ang Li's father, who is in the military, was present in the courtroom during the appeal. That is also unusual because normally the courtroom — trials in China are closed to the public — is restricted to family members, he said.
Zhao was attending a Coquitlam language school and living in a Burnaby basement suite with then-boyfriend Ang Li and his cousin when Li reported her missing on Oct. 9, 2002. He claimed she had gone to the grocery store and never returned.
Zhao's body, strangled and stuffed inside a suitcase, was discovered by hikers 11 days later near Stave Lake in Mission.
Li, who has since changed his name to Jia-ming Li, became a suspect, but fled to China before charges were laid against him in B.C.
He was finally charged in Canada in May 2003, and in February 2004, the RCMP confirmed he was questioned by police in Beijing. Police formally charged Li with second-degree murder in May 2003, but because Canada has no extradition treaty with China, Li couldn't be forced to return to stand trial.
In September 2012, a Beijing court convicted Li, then 28, of murdering Zhao. He was sentenced to life in prison.
