According to reports (by reporter Lei Zhang), a 23-year-old man named Wenbin Zhang held his girlfriend hostage for three hours with a kitchen knife, even asking the police for a gun in order to "commit suicide like Hitler." This morning, the Tongzhou Court sentenced him to seven years in prison for kidnapping.
The girlfriend stated that the defendant had a strong control complex.
At 10 o'clock this morning, Wenbin Zhang, bald-headed, was brought into the courtroom by court bailiffs. Zhang and his girlfriend Liu are students at a university in Tongzhou. They had been dating for two or three years. Before the incident, the young lovers rented an apartment together in Room 501 of a residential area in Tongzhou.
Liu stated that during their relationship, Zhang exhibited extremely strong control and possessiveness. He not only checked her private text messages and call records but also followed her closely everywhere she went. Unable to endure this torment, Liu proposed breaking up with Zhang, but Zhang refused. In July, Liu proposed returning to her hometown to calm down and consider their relationship. At the time, Zhang neither agreed nor opposed the idea. However, this return trip became the trigger for the crime.
The girl signaled others to report the situation using gestures.
Liu and her father's friend Uncle Zhou had agreed that she would take his car back to her hometown. On the morning of July 16th, Uncle Zhou arrived at Liu's temporary residence and called her from downstairs, asking if she had made up her mind whether to go or not. After hearing this, Zhang used Liu's phone and, in her tone, sent a text message to Uncle Zhou saying, "I'm not going; something came up."
After receiving the text message, Uncle Zhou immediately called Liu and rushed to her home on the fifth floor. The door opened slightly, and Zhang controlled Liu, ordering Uncle Zhou to leave and not interfere in their affairs. Through the door crack, Liu gestured "110" (the Chinese emergency number) to indicate to Uncle Zhou to call the police.
Special police broke through the window to rescue the hostage.
Soon after, Uncle Zhou, accompanied by the police, knocked on Liu's door several times. Behind the burglar-proof door, they negotiated with Zhang. During this time, Zhang lost control of his emotions, holding a kitchen knife to Liu's neck as a hostage, binding her hands with cloth strips, and threatening several times to push Liu out of the window. Under Zhang's agitated urging, in order to protect the safety of the hostage, the police retreated to the ground floor and then communicated with Zhang both upstairs and downstairs.
During negotiations with the officers, Zhang dragged Liu and a gas canister onto the balcony, threatening to ignite the gas canister if the officers did not leave.
Thus, Zhang confronted the officers for nearly three hours. Later, the police requested assistance from special forces. When the special police arrived, they broke through the window, rescuing the girl and capturing Zhang.
He asked for a gun to commit suicide because he thought it would be cool.
During the nearly three-hour standoff with the police, Zhang also asked the police for a gun. Prosecutor Li Li asked Zhang during interrogation: "Why did you ask the police for a gun?" Zhang said he wanted to commit suicide. "Suicide is so cool, haven't you seen TV dramas? Hitler committed suicide," Zhang told the prosecutor.
After reviewing the case, the Tongzhou Court believed that after losing control of his emotions due to emotional disputes with his girlfriend, Zhang kidnapped her as a hostage. However, during the kidnapping process, after tying the hostage with cloth strips, he voluntarily untied her, and after pulling the hostage to the window ledge, he let her down again, without causing any physical harm to the hostage. His actions were relatively mild.
The judgment stated that the subjective aspect of the crime of kidnapping could be either for the purpose of extorting money or for the purpose of fulfilling other illegal demands. Zhang belonged to the latter category. Accordingly, the court decided to mitigate Zhang's punishment appropriately, resulting in the aforementioned verdict.
Regarding the verdict, Zhang stated that he had no objections. When interviewed by reporters, Zhang appeared relaxed. "It was just an ordinary argument. You know, I got so excited and ended up doing such a thing, ruining my entire life. It's really not worth it," Zhang said. The reporter asked him what he planned to do when he was released in the future. Zhang replied, "I have two hands; I can support myself."