U.S. national Shadeed Abdulmateen has been sentenced to death for the 2021 murder of his former Chinese girlfriend near a bus stop, a court in east China announced on Thursday.

According to the Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court in Zhejiang province, the American citizen met his victim, a 21-year-old woman identified only by her last name Chen, in early 2019. Abdulmateen “falsely claimed to be divorced and single,” before gradually establishing a relationship with Chen.

Following Chen’s “repeated proposals” to break up beginning in the second half of May 2021, Abdulmateen arranged to meet her at a bus stop at 8pm on 14th June, the court statement said. At 9:48 p.m., using a “folding knife” he had carried on his person, Abdulmateen stabbed and cut his ex-girlfriend’s neck.

After Chen “lost the ability to resist,” the defendant “continued to jab Chen’s face with the knife,” causing the victim to die of severe blood loss, in what the court called a “premeditated revenge killing.”

The Chinese court described Abdulmateen’s motives as “vile,” his criminal intent as “resolute” and his means as “cruel.”

“The circumstances of the crime were particularly bad and the consequences particularly serious, deserving of punishment according to law,” it said.

There have been no comments received from the US Embassy but the US State Department stated that the situation is being monitored closely. On account of privacy considerations, no more comments were made, according to a Reuters report.