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Death Penalty for Ex-Husband Who Set Popular Chinese Vlogger on Fire During Live...

 2 years ago
source link: https://www.insider.com/death-sentence-ex-husband-set-popular-chinese-vlogger-on-fire-2021-10
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TikToker Lamu had hundreds of thousands of followers who watched as her ex-husband set her on fire during a livestream. He's now facing the death penalty.

Lamu, who died last year, was a popular vlogger with 770,000 followers. Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images
  • A popular Tibetan vlogger died after being set on fire by her ex-husband. He was sentenced to death.
  • Her grisly murder shocked China, prompting nationwide outrage against domestic violence.
  • China has long battled domestic abuse, with one in four women said to have suffered physical abuse.
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A man in China was given the death penalty for murdering his ex-wife by setting her on fire as she was livestreaming, a brutal case that has horrified the country and has fueled nationwide outrage over domestic violence against women.

On Thursday, Tang Lu, the defendant, was found guilty of intentional homicide by the intermediate people's court in the Aba region of Sichuan province, the state media outlet CCTV News reported.

The court said his crime was "extremely cruel," and that the "social impact was extremely bad," CCTV reported.

Amachu, Tang's ex-wife, was a 30-year-old ethnic minority Tibetan vlogger. She went by the name "Lamu" and had more than 770,000 followers on Douyin — China's version of TikTok. She regularly posted cheerful videos of her rural life in the mountains, featuring her lip-synching, cooking, foraging, or spending time with her family.

Lamu would sometimes wear traditional Tibetan clothing in her videos, and followers often praised her for not wearing makeup.

Amachu, known as "Lamu," posted frequently about her life in the mountains. Screengrab/Douyin

Her Douyin-account description said: "It's not that I don't like city life, but I want to be by my father's side, so I need to rely on the mountains to earn an income. I want to share the treasures of the mountains with more people!"

The mother of two married Tang in 2009, but the couple often quarreled, and Tang beat her many times, the court heard, CCTV reported.

Lamu divorced Tang in June 2020, and he later sought to remarry her but was rejected. At around 10:30 p.m. on September 14, 2020, Tang went to Lamu's father's house, where Lamu was streaming to a live audience, and dumped gasoline on her and set her alight, CCTV reported, citing the court hearings.

She suffered burns on 90% of her body and died two weeks after the attack. Tang fled the scene and was arrested that night by local police, reported Chinese media Sina News.

Meanwhile, Lamu's father's house burned down in the assault, and the elderly man has been living in an old nursing home near a government facility since, Sina reported.

Lamu's death sparked outrage across China

Lamu's case has bolstered a renewed fury in China toward domestic violence against women. Supporters flooded her Douyin page with tens of thousands of comments grieving her death, and millions of people on the social-media site Weibo called for justice using the hashtags "Lamu" and "Lamu died after being set on fire by her ex-husband," the Hong Kong Free Press reported. Many of the posts were later censored, reported HKFP.

Reports after Lamu's death said she and her family endured a brutish history of violence from Tang.

The Chongqing Morning Post reported that their divorce in June 2020 was their second split. Lamu had divorced Tang earlier in May 2020, the report said, but she went back to him after he threatened to kill one of their children, who was in his custody.

She ran away from Tang soon after and hid with the help of relatives. The Post reported that Tang confronted Lamu's sister and beat her when she refused to tell him where Lamu was.

Her family told the Post they reported the incident to the police, but that the authorities did nothing. When Lamu divorced Tang the second time in June 2020, she gained custody of both their children. 

After divorcing Tang a second time in June, Lamu continued posting videos on Douyin. Screenshot/Douyin

About one in four women in China suffer from domestic abuse, the state media outlet CGTN reported.

Authorities and police have long considered domestic violence a family matter that should be dealt with privately, and China only criminalized it in 2016.  

Other high-profile abuse cases have prompted outrage in China. In July, a man accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend was released by police after writing a guarantee that he wouldn't do it again. He had been recorded grabbing her and pushing her into his car while she screamed.

Afterward, the hashtag "guarantee" trended with 740 million mentions on Weibo, The South China Morning Post reported.

In the meantime, Lamu's older sister Zhuoma has taken over the vlogger's Douyin account, posting updates on her family's situation and tearful farewell messages to her sister.

In her latest video, posted last week, Zhuoma seemingly wrote to Lamu: "I'm sorry, a year has passed, and I still can't give you an explanation. The most I've been able to do is protect those you cared about and loved."

She continued: "In the next life, I'll be your older brother, and protect you well. Rest in peace, little sister."


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