BEIJING: A Chinese school teacher has been sentenced to death for poisoning 25 children and killing one, state media reported.
Wang Yun was arrested last year after children from a kindergarten in Jiaozuo City were rushed to hospital after eating their morning porridge.
The court said she put sodium nitrite in her colleague’s student breakfast in revenge after a fallout. He described Wang as “contemptible and vicious.”
The incident on March 27 last year shocked China and made headlines around the world. At the time, 23 children began to vomit and pass out after eating breakfast.
A police investigation was triggered after allegations that the teacher poisoned them.
On Monday, a local court in Jiaozuo sentenced Wang to death. The court said she “put nitrite in the porridge of another teacher’s students … after they argued over student management issues,” Chinese state media said.
The court also said that this was not the first time Wang had poisoned people, referring to an earlier incident where she bought nitrite online and poisoned her husband who suffered minor injuries.
There were no immediate details about the child who would have died. The court noted that the consequences of her crimes were extremely serious and that she deserved to be severely punished.
China refuses to disclose the number of people it executes but rights groups estimate that thousands of people are killed each year. The sentence is carried out by lethal injection or by firing squad.
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