Ex-Gaming Executive Receives Death Sentence

(RepublicanPress.org) – Chinese entrepreneur Lin Qi founded the gaming company Youzu Interactive in 2009, later selling on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange under the trading name Yoozoo Games. Sadly, Lin died in late 2020 after falling victim to a multi-faceted murder plot. Recent news reports indicated that a former executive with the Big Tech company received the death penalty for his role in Lin’s death.

On March 22, the state-run China Daily reported that the Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court convicted Xu Yao of intentionally causing Lin’s death. The court sentenced him to death and the deprivation of his political rights for life for committing intentional homicide.

The judge overseeing the case also gave him a consecutive sentence of six years and a lifetime ban on his rights for delivering hazardous substances (poison) to four other co-workers. Those poisoning incidents occurred at Youzu Interactive subsidiary, Three-Body Universe (Shanghai) Cultural Development Company, Ltd. Xu served as the company’s CEO at the time.

The court issued a brief statement at Xu’s sentencing hearing. Noting that he deliberately killed one person and injured several others, the judge said the former tech CEO’s “criminal motive [was] extremely despicable,” warranting severe punishment.

Prosecutors presented evidence during Xu’s trial that he poisoned food later consumed by Lin between December 14 and 15, 2020, leading to his death on Christmas day. Lin was only 39 at the time of his death.

Likewise, Xu attempted to poison two other co-workers and accidentally injured two others by placing toxins in their beverages amid workplace disputes over the management of Three-Body Universe between September and December 2020. Law enforcement officials arrested Xu on December 18.

American media companies reported that Lin had been working with Netflix officials to have “Game of Thrones” creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff adapt an English language series from a best-selling Chinese science fiction trilogy shortly before his murder. The subscription video-on-demand company released the eight-episode series “3 Body Problem” on March 21.

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