A 29-year-old married woman and her lover, 23, were sentenced to death by Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court on Wednesday for killing a man to whom they owed money, Wenhui Daily reports.

Wang Jie abandoned her husband and family to move in with Gao Weiguang in 2001. In June of that year, she borrowed 550,000 yuan (US$66,450) from Zhang Huafa, her cousin's husband.

Wang and Gao squandered the money travelling. They decided to kill Zhang when they realized they could not repay the debt.

In late 2002, Zhang asked Gao to hire hitmen on two different occasions but both murder attempts failed.

The pair killed Zhang themselves in January at Zhang's home.

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