vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #605 / Crime watch / Reading article...

A Chinese court has sentenced two of its citizens who murdered a Primorye tourist and injured another in an attempted robbery last September, to a death sentence and a ten-year imprisonment respectively, news reports said.

The two women, Tatyana Doronina and Yelena Shtanko, were attacked September 16 in the Chinese city of Suifenhe. The assailants attempted to rob the women, stabbing them and killing 35-year-old Doronina on the spot and injuring Shtanko, who later underwent surgery in a Suifenhe hospital.

The assailants were detained the next day, with the investigation closely followed by the Russian Consulate general in the city of Shenyang, northeast China.

The city of Suifenhe is located on the border with Russia and is a popular shopping destination for Primorye residents.

The murder made the number of fatal attacks on Russian tourists occurring in China in 2007 climb to five. In June, a Russian citizen was murdered in a fight near a night club in Beijing, while a female tourist from Vladivostok was found stabbed to death in a park in Wudalianchi, northeast China. In February, a Russian woman was killed and another injured during a robbery in the city of Heihe, a border town in northeast China. A city resident was later detained, charged with murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In February 2005, a 37-year-old man from Blagoveshchensk, Amur region, was killed in a skirmish with Chinese men at a disco party, also in Heihe. The murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment.