A SHENZHEN woman was ordered to spend the rest of her life behind bars by the provincial higher court after she was convicted of murdering her billionaire husband 10 years ago, according to a press release by the Shenzhen Procuratorate on Wednesday.

Zhang Shaohong was arrested soon after her businessman husband Li Shaobo was shot to death in his sedan outside a primary school in Longgang District after he dropped his child at school Oct. 29, 1998.

Zhang Shaohong was charged with conspiring to murder Li with her younger brother, Zhang Huiran. But after a four-year court hearing, she was released in 2002 for lack of evidence of her involvement in the murder.

According to court papers, Zhang Shaohong had a strained relationship with Li from 1997 until his death. She left home to stay with her brother who was enraged with Li and vowed to take revenge against him.

The court papers said her brother paid gunman Pan Jinqiang a large sum of money to kill Li. The sum was not disclosed. In 2002 Zhang Huiran was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension, while Pan was sentenced to death for the murder.

Li’s family was disappointed with the judgement, insisting that Zhang Shaohong was behind the murder.

The family appealed to Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, which in 2006 ruled that Zhang Shaohong had conspired to kill her husband. Zhang Huiran assisted Zhang Shaohong in looking for a gunman.

Li’s family took the appeal to the provincial higher court, which upheld the ruling in September last year.

(Claudia Wei)