Killer's girlfriend on trial for helping lover

The girlfriend of Zhou Kehua, China's most wanted criminal before he was shot dead in August, stood trial at a local court in Chongqing on Tuesday, in a hearing in which more details of Zhou's life were revealed.

Zhang Guiying, a 20-year-old resident of Yibin city, Sichuan province and Zhou Kehua's girlfriend, is accused by the procuratorate in Chongqing of helping hide her boyfriend when he was on the run and helping conceal money he robbed. The hearing was held at the people's court of Shapingba district.

Prosecutors asked that she receive a four- to seven-year prison sentence and be fined.

Zhou Kehua, a native of Shapingba district in Chongqing and the prime suspect in 10 murders in Chongqing, Nanjing, and Changsha over eight years, was shot dead by two police in a residential alleyway in the Shapingba district of Chongqing on Aug 14.

Four days earlier, he allegedly robbed and killed two people in front of a bank. He robbed a handbag from a woman and injured a security guard who tried to chase him. He also shot and killed a rail police officer that day.

Zhou usually targeted people withdrawing money from banks and was adept at dodging police manhunts.

The indictment by prosecutors at Tuesday's hearing said Zhang met Zhou in her hometown Yibin in 2012.

Zhang was working at a massage parlor in Yibin when Zhou met her, Huaxi Metropolis Daily in Chengdu reported. Zhou later became Zhang's regular customer at the massage parlor.

Prosecutors told the court that Zhang and Zhou started living together and Zhang followed her boyfriend to Chongqing in July 2012 to make money. Zhou also promised to pay the medical bills to cure her epilepsia, a brain disorder in which the sufferer experiences motor epileptic seizures, a condition Zhang has had since childhood.

Prosecutors told the court that Zhang saw Zhou with a gun during the period they lived together.

On Aug 10, hours after Zhou allegedly committed a robbery and double murder, prosecutors said he met Zhang outside a hotel in the Shapingba district and gave her 60,000 yuan ($9,600).

Zhang kept in touch with Zhou through text messages and sent him media reports about the latest efforts of police to find him.

She also gave him makeup so he could disguise himself by covering a distinctive scar, prosecutors said.

When Zhou was shot dead, police found he was in possession of pistols that had been used in two robberies in Chongqing in 2004 and 2005.

In court, Zhang denied that she came to Chongqing with Zhou to make money.

She also denied knowing that the money Zhou gave her came from robberies and said she only knew the money was robbed after reading news reports, according to a media statement from the court.

Zhang was calm and able to clearly articulate herself during the court hearing, according to an eyewitness who did not want to be identified.

The court heard around five hours of evidence on Tuesday. The court will deliver its verdict at a later date.

Zhang's lawyer Yao Fei, from the Zhouji Law Firm in Chengdu, said his client is innocent.

"The two charges cannot stand as there is clear evidence that shows Zhang had no knowledge Zhou was a criminal suspect when she received the money and sent him the text messages," he said in a phone interview.

"The four- to seven-year prison term also seems way too harsh," he added.