BEIJING – A Chinese court has sentenced a 25-year-old man to death for setting fire to a building that killed eight people as part of a revenge attack, state media reported.
Lin Binwei confessed to setting the fire Feb. 23 in revenge against a man he thought was having an affair with his girlfriend, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday. A man on duty Sunday at Intermediate People's Court in Taizhou City confirmed a verdict had been handed down, but said he had no details.
All death sentences are automatically reviewed by the Supreme People's Court.
Xinhua said Lin's arson attack targeted the rival man's warehouse, where he stored products for his online shoe business, and that the fire spread to homes upstairs, killing eight and injuring one. The brief report had no further details, including whether the business owner was hurt or killed.
Private gun ownership is largely prohibited in China so knives, homemade bombs and arson are frequently used to settle scores.
On Friday, a man unhappy with life set fire to a commuter bus to vent his anger, killing 47 people and injuring 34, according to authorities in southeast Xiamen city.
In a microblogging account reported to be the suspect's, the writer chronicled his frustrated efforts to get a local police station to correct his age so he could be eligible for social security payments.
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