Hearing underway for second Liu Nuanxi trial

A second hearing for the second trial of Liu Xin, now known as Liu Nuanxi, whose action led to her roommate Jiang Ge's death according to the first court's ruling, will start on Tuesday in Qingdao Intermediate People's Court in Qingdao, Shandong province, The Paper reported.

Disagreeing with the order to pay Jiang Ge's mother 696,000 yuan ($109,200) as compensation, Liu lodged an appeal.

On Nov 3, 2016, Jiang Ge, 24, was stabbed to death in the hallway outside her apartment in Tokyo, Japan, by Chen Shifeng, Liu's ex-boyfriend. Liu had moved in with Jiang after breaking up with Chen before that.

At the end of 2017, a court in Japan found Chen guilty of the murder and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Jiang Ge's mother Jiang Qiulian said Liu should share responsibility for her daughter's death because she had locked Jiang Ge out of the apartment when she was attacked. She was also upset about some improper posts Liu had made about her daughter on the Sina Weibo microblogging platform.

In late 2019, Jiang Qiulian filed a lawsuit against Liu in China, seeking more than 2 million yuan in compensation for financial losses and mental anguish caused by her daughter's death.

After the first trial, Chengyang District People's Court in Qingdao said Liu was obviously at fault in the incident and should bear the civil penalty as she had not informed Jiang Ge of the potential danger posed by Chen, who had intimidated her before the killing, nor had she taken Jiang Ge's safety into account when she locked her outside the apartment. Therefore, Liu was ordered to pay the compensation, including 496,000 yuan for Jiang Qiulian's financial losses and 200,000 yuan for her mental anguish over the death of her daughter. It also covered some legal expenses.

As Liu appealed to a higher court, the first hearing for the second trial was held on Feb 16 as reported by CCTV News.

According to CCTV news, at the first hearing of the retrial, Liu said there was no evidence that she "locked the door" after entering the house first and it was impossible for her to know Chen would kill someone who has nothing to do with her. Therefore, she argued, the death was completely a result of Chen's actions. Liu believes she has no fault and should not bear civil liability.

The mother said there was sufficient evidence to prove Liu locked the door and stopped Jiang from calling the police several times before the tragedy happened.

Li Peixuan contributed to this story.