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Accused's admission in Leeds double murder trial
A student accused of murdering a Chinese couple admitted putting them in suitcases but said they were both alive when he left them at his home.
Lu Yao Jia, 20, said he was one of three who put Jin Xue, 38, and his wife Li Xie, 35, into suitcases because they needed to put them in a car.
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Jia said he and co-accused Ji Peng, 25, put the couple in suitcases helped by another man Liang Zhang who is believed to be in China and is still wanted over the murders.
Jia and Peng are on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of killing the couple in a plot to take over their Chinese takeaway in Bramley, Leeds.
Their bodies were found in suitcases in the boot of Peng's car outside the house he shared with Jia on Kensington Way, Belle Isle, on July 27 last year.
Both Peng and Jia admit kidnap but deny murder.
On July 24 last year the couple were driven to a house in Holborn Grove by Peng, where they were tied up and gagged.
Jia admitted helping place them in two suitcases but denied hitting Jin Xue, stating that
Zhang did it.
Jian then drove Peng's car to Kensington Way to hand them over to Zhang's friend, he told the court.
Asked why they took the couple back to his own house, Jia said: "Because my home is close to the motorway...This is what Liang
Zhang told us, we just did as he told us to do."
Jia said he waited for Zhang's friend or friends to arrive while Peng went out to meet Zhang.
Half an hour later a man of Chinese origin arrived at the house who wanted to see the couple in the suitcases and asked if anyone else was in the house.
Jia said he showed him there was no-one else there "and then he said I had to leave".
He has told the court of his shock after returning later to the house in Kensington Way where Zhang then told him the couple were dead, killed by other people.
Jin Xue had been stabbed and Li Xie had been drowned – possibly in a bucket or barrel of water.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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