Teen faces trial for allegedly selling boyfriend to fraud compound

A trial against a 17-year-old girl on charges of telecom fraud will be held soon, according to media reports.

The girl, surnamed Zhou, who is currently facing prosecution, was allegedly involved in selling her 19-year-old boyfriend to a telecom fraud compound in Myanmar in early February.

The trial has been postponed once, as it was initially scheduled for the end of July, according to a report by the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, a news outlet based in Hunan province.

Zhou's boyfriend, surnamed Huang, was allegedly sold for 100,000 yuan ($13,900), according to the report.

The young man had his head shaved and was locked in a small, dark room to participate in telecom fraud each day.

Huang was brutally beaten if he failed to meet fraud targets, with his hearing becoming impaired, according to the report.

Huang, a native of Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, met Zhou in 2024 at a billiard hall. They developed a relationship and eventually lived together.

Soon after they started dating, Zhou is alleged to have begun trying to persuade her boyfriend that her family had a business in Myanmar and that he should join her to work there.

Huang traveled with Zhou to Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb 2, without informing his family.

"Things changed a lot at the Thai-Myanmar border, as the people who came to pick him up were armed and confiscated his passport and phone," Huang's sister was quoted as saying in the report.

After arriving at the border, Zhou falsely claimed she needed to pick someone up and left Huang behind. Armed individuals then took Huang to the telecom fraud compound in Myanmar.

With the assistance of a Chinese chamber of commerce in Myanmar, Huang returned to China in June, after paying a sum of 350,000 yuan to the compound.

After spending time in Thailand, Zhou was detained by police upon returning to China.