Chinese man jailed for kidnapping female official

A court in east China's Zhejiang Province sentenced a man to 11 years in jail for kidnapping a female county official.

Zhang Xiaowei, a 43-year-old man from Yunhe County, was charged with kidnapping after he held the county's deputy magistrate, surnamed Li, hostage for nearly ten hours, the Jinyun County People's Court in Lishui City announced Thursday in a written statement.

The court's verdict, handed down on Tuesday, also required Zhang to pay a fine of 30,000 yuan (4,796 U.S. dollars).

On May 22, Zhang, who had complained that a public toilet near his home affected his life and received 20,000 yuan in compensation, was armed with a knife when he grabbed Li outside of her government dormitory and forced her back inside the building at around 8 a.m. He held her hostage, demanding that the local government demolish the public toilet, according to the statement.

An emergency response team was formed and the toilet was demolished, but Zhang further demanded that the team demolish the house of a villager against whom Zhang held a personal grudge.

The team mobilized media workers, local officials and Zhang's family members and friends to try to persuade him to release Li, but their efforts failed. At 6 p.m., armed police broke into the dormitory, apprehended Zhang and rescued Li, it said.