BEIJING: A disabled Chinese man who set off a homemade explosive device at Beijing’s international airport went on trial yesterday, still suffering from the effects of the blast.
Ji Zhongxing, who lost his left hand in the explosion in July, was wheeled into a Beijing court on a yellow stretcher wearing pyjamas, pictures posted on a verified social media account run by the city’s court authorities showed.
He remained on the stretcher during the trial, which lasted around three hours. Ji, 34, faces a charge of “causing an explosion” but told the court he had set off the device by accident while trying to stop police from snatching it, according to the court’s social media account.
But he said he did build the device himself, adding that he “deeply regretted” his actions and asking the court to “give him another chance”.
Two nurses accompanied him to court on account of his ill-health, and he was provided with water during the trial. Ji, a former motorcycle driver, was reportedly the victim of a brutal attack by police officers in the southern city of Dongguan, which confined him to a wheelchair in 2005.
If found guilty he faces a minimum of three years in prison. The court did not say when it would give its verdict.
The bombing spotlighted how frustration over low-level abuses in China can flare up to trouble the authorities, analysts said.
AFP
