A court in the eastern Chinese city of Shanghai sentenced Xu Yao to death this Friday for the premeditated poisoning of his co-workers, an act that ended with the death of Lin Qi, president of the video game company Yoozoo Games and founder of the producer of the series The Three-Body Problem, and caused serious injuries to four others.
The defendant has been sentenced to capital punishment after being found guilty of murder and introducing “dangerous substances” into the work environment, the Shanghai Intermediate Court Number 1 reported today on its official account on the Weibo social network.
According to the court, between December 14 and 15, 2020, Xu poisoned Lin Qi’s food following a conflict related to the management and operation of the company, resulting in Lin’s death.
Furthermore, between September and December 2020, Xu contaminated drinks and other items in the work office, thus poisoning four other colleagues, according to the court, which sentenced him to an additional 6 years in prison for these acts.
“The defendant Xu Yao deliberately killed people by poisoning them and endangered public safety. His criminal motive is extremely despicable and he should be severely punished according to the law,” the court stated.
Chinese authorities do not provide official data on the number of those sentenced to death, but in Amnesty International’s 2019 capital punishment report, the organization noted that “thousands of executions are believed to be carried out in China.”
Lin founded Yoozoo in 2009 and in 2014 acquired the film rights to the popular science fiction saga The Three-Body Problem, praised by public figures such as Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg.
In February 2020, Yoozoo announced an agreement with Netflix for that platform to produce a series based on the Three Body Problem trilogy in English.
The businessman was ranked 870 on the list of the richest people in China prepared by Hurun magazine, with a fortune estimated at 6.8 billion yuan (850 million euros).
The Three Body Problem premiered on March 21 on the Netflix platform, sparking debate on the Asian giant’s social networks about the lack of special effects in the series and the absence of famous passages in the novel.
