

A group of Chinese study-abroad students in Los Angeles, California are standing trial for the alleged abduction and torture of a fellow Chinese student, according to media reports.

The victim, surnamed Liu, claims that a group of students stripped her naked, forced her to eat sand, shaved her head and burned her. It is revealed that the dispute arose from jealousy between the victim and the defendants.

Among the six arrested defendants, three are are minors. It is reported that four other accomplices involved in the case are still at large.

Liu says that on March 30, her female classmate, surnamed Di, invited her out to “discuss” matters in private. She took Liu to Rowland Heights Park, where Di and a group of students began kicking and hitting Liu. Two of them grabbed her arm, while one of the defendants, surnamed Yang, stripped Liu naked and burned her nipples with a cigarette. Liu recalled that there was another girl who even tried to burn her hair with a lighter, but it never caught fire, as she was being splashed with ice water.

The girls reportedly chopped off Liu’s hair, pressed her to the ground and forced her to eat sand. The victim says she recalls girls recording videos of the incident on their cell phones. The torturing lasted for five hours, and left countless bruises on Liu’s body and face.

At a friend’s suggestion, Liu called the police and reported the assault at Rowland Heights Park. Not long after, six of the students involved, male and female, were arrested.



More controversy ensued when the father of one of the defendants tried to pay off a witness, hoping to ‘settle’ the fiasco. He was later arrested for bribery of a witness.

The three non-minors will enter their plea in court on June 18.



By Crystal Lau

[Images via news.sina.com]



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