The richest man in Yibin, a city in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, has been abducted, blackmailed and forced to kill a woman, media reports said Tuesday, triggering wide public discussion over whether he should be granted amnesty for the murder he committed under duress.
The local police bureau on Tuesday said on its official Sina Weibo that it has arrested four suspects on charges of kidnapping and blackmailing the man, surnamed Zhang, for a hefty ransom on November 11. The suspects also allegedly forced Zhang to kill a female stranger.
Prior to the police statement, an online post stating that Zhang was kidnapped by four people in an apartment elevator on November 10 went viral.
Zhang, identified as the president of Yibin Yili Science and Technology Company and the richest man in the area, was taken to a rental house and held there by kidnappers wielding a self-made pistol. A demand was made for a 100 million yuan ($15.65 million) ransom to be paid before March 2016.
According to the viral post, Zhang was later forced to strangle a masseur and was released after the four kidnappers filmed the killing to blackmail him.
The incident has triggered heated discussion online, as some argue that Zhang should not be granted amnesty for killing people even though he may have been forced to do so.
According to China's Criminal Law, a person who is compelled to participate in a crime shall, according to the circumstances of his crime, be given a mitigated punishment or be exempted from punishment.
Many netizens raised doubts as to whether hatred for wealthy people is fueling the debate over whether Zhang should be exempted.
"Maybe demands that Zhang should be punished severely are being made because he is a rich man. If he was poor, the situation might go a different way," wrote one Net user.
