Lin Senhao, a medical student from Fudan University in Shanghai, pleaded guilty of murdering his roommate using poison in April last year. (Photo : Xinhua)
China’s top court has approved the death sentence of a former medical student for killing his roommate, a lawyer of the family announced on Wednesday.
Xie Tongxiang, the lawyer representing the family of murder suspect Lin Senhao, said that Lin's father was informed by a Shanghai Court on Tuesday that the Supreme People's Court has approved a lower court's decision in the case and that he could see his son on Friday.
Lin, 29, was sentenced to death at the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Feb. 2014 for poisoning the water dispenser of his roommate Huang Yang at Shanghai's Fudan University. Huang died in April 2013 of liver, kidney and lung failure after suffering two weeks of illness.
On Jan. 8, the Shanghai High People's Court upheld the death sentence and submitted its judgment to the nation's top court for review, which the latter later approved, Xie said. Such approvals generally clear the way for executions.
In a statement handed to the China Daily newspaper on Wednesday, a spokesman from the Supreme People's Court said the court was aware of the news report but would not confirm the court's decision.
Huang Guoqiang, the father of victim Huang Yang, told Beijing's Legal Evening News in an interview that he was relieved over the court's upholding of the death sentence, saying it provided fairness to his son.
"We had a tomb sweeping for Huang Yang after we heard the news," the newspaper quoted Huang as saying.
The family of Lin Senhao could not be reached for comment, although Huaxi Metropolis Daily quoted Lin's father, Lin Zunyao, as saying they couldn't sleep after receiving the court notice and that they went to Beijing on Wednesday.
"I was muddled and didn't know what to do," the elder Lin was quoted as saying, adding that his wife cannot sleep or eat and was always crying.
