A murder case takes shape
Less than a day after his death, state media in China reported that Lin’s death was being investigated as a suspected murder by poisoning, possibly from the pu-erh tea he drank. was known to drink.
Three days after Lin’s death, Shanghai police said in a statement that they had arrested Xu Yao on Dec. 18 “in accordance with the law while relevant investigative work is conducted.”
Lin hired Xu, a lawyer by training, in 2017 to run The Three-Body Problem Universe, a Yoozoo subsidiary dedicated to adapting books for cinema in China, according to Variety.
Although Chinese authorities have not shared any details about the prosecution of Xu, the murder of one of the country’s richest men has, unsurprisingly, sparked a media frenzy. The magazine Caixin reported that Xu was unhappy after being demoted and, being a big fan of Break the bad-built an entire laboratory to test various poisons that he purchased on the dark web.
Announcing the guilty verdict and death sentence, the Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court said on its official WeChat account, according to the Timesthat Xu plotted to poison Lin and four others in the office who were sick but did not die after drinking contaminated drinks between September 2020 and December 2020.
Xu did not confess, the court said, and did not reveal what type of poison he used, which may have complicated efforts to treat Lin at the hospital.
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