Min Chen

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Min Chen (born January 30, 1983^[1]) is a Chinese visa student charged with first-degree murder in the case of the death of Cecilia Zhang.

Chen, a Shanghai native who has lived in Canada on a visa since 2001, allegedly entered Zhang's home through a kitchen window and removed her from her home between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM, leaving by a side door. According to Police, Min Chen knew a female boarder who lived at the Zhang home between September 2002, and March 2003 and had visited the Zhang home at least four times. Police said that Cecilia would have been comfortable in Chen's company under normal social circumstances.

At the time of Chen's kidnapping of Cecilia Zhang, Chen had already stopped his English studies at a Seneca College campus located very close to Cecilia's home in North York, Ontario. Neither did Chen complete his Grade 12 level courses at a local private academy. Chen, whose father is an airline executive and whose mother is a Shanghai police officer, had been receiving money from his parents back in China. [1]

Min Chen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on May 9, 2006. According to an agreed statement of facts read out in a Brampton, Ontario courthouse, Chen was failing in his college studies and feared deportation back to his native China. Being a visa student who was broke, he desperately needed $25,000 to enter into a marriage of convenience as a means of obtaining right of permanent residence in Canada. Cecilia's death was the result of Chen botching up his poorly planned kidnapping during the early hours of October 20, 2003 at Cecilia's home. When Cecilia tried to scream, Chen covered her face with a towel and held his hand over her mouth. Cecilia had stopped struggling by the time Chen placed her inside the trunk of his car. When Chen checked on Cecilia later on, he discovered that she had stopped breathing.[2]

Chen was represented by well known criminal lawyer John Rosen, who had defended killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo. [3] Min Chen is sentenced to life imprisonment with a chance of parole after 15 years.

Human rights lawyers have noted that under Chinese law, when Chen has completed his sentence and is deported back to China, he will likely face a second trial and sentence in China. Canadian law forbids this practice, which is known as double jeopardy, while Chinese law permits it if a Chinese resident commits a crime on foreign soil. Trial and punishment in the other country is seen as a mitigating factor, but does not preclude further imprisonment or even execution in China. ^[2]