The schoolmate of the victim confessed to the crime yesterday in the Second Special District Court in connection with the recent kidnapping of Mr. Tsao Chia-cheng, an employee of the Ta Tung Company, a Chinese firm in Kiangse Road. He admitted that he had kidnapped his schoolmate but asked the judge to pardon all the members of his family who, he said, had nothing to do with the crime. Judgment will be announced on March 31 The accused, Lin Ssu-ying, told the court that he was a schoolmate of the victim whom the French police had rescued. He kidnapped him because he was without any means at his disposal as a result of the hostilities, during which his factory was destroyed. He had a family to support. He had made a mistake and asked the judge to pardon him. He also asked that his three relatives detained be released because they knew nothing about the crime. All the detained relatives denied that they had participated in the kidnapping plot.
The police prosecutor stated that there was no doubt that the accused had kidnapped his schoolmate. He alleged that at least two of the three Other accused were involved in the crime in a minor capacity, explaining that one of them guarded the victim. He asked the court to deal with the accused leniently, however, in consideration of pitiful conditions in which they found themselves. He also mentioned the fact that no weapon whatsoever had been used in the crime.
He alleged that by posing as a hanker friend of their victim, the accused lured Mr. Tsao to a secret place and tried to extort $10,000 from him.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.