Chinese police arrest court official, three others for 1997 armed robbery that left woman dead
- ‘New technology’ provides breakthrough in cold case in which gang escaped with US$114,000 after fatally shooting an account executive and injuring two security guards
- Court official Zhao Zhiyong, who was a serving soldier at the time of the crime, among those detained
Police in northern China have arrested four people, including a local court official, in connection with an armed robbery 23 years ago in which a woman was shot dead and two security guards were wounded.
The crime happened in 1997 when a gang attacked an armoured vehicle in the city of Xinji in Hebei province, Chinese media reported on Thursday.
While exact details of the incident were not provided, the gang was said to have escaped with 800,000 yuan (US$114,000) belonging to a cooperative fund. The woman killed was a mother of two who worked as an account executive for the cooperative and was travelling with the money.
The news reports came after police in Xinji last week issued a statement saying they had detained four people believed to have been involved in the robbery.
Among them was 51-year-old Zhao Zhiyong, who for the past 20 years has risen through the ranks of the judicial system in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei.
The police statement did not say how the breakthrough was made, but a report by Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television said new technology was used to reassess evidence collected from the crime scene.
