Arsonist sentenced to death for bus fire
Print Edition
A MAN who set a bus on fire, injuring 33 people, including himself, was sentenced to death by a court in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, yesterday.
Bao Laixu, who suffered burns over 95 percent of his body and had his feet amputated, was carried on his bed into Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
He has 15 days to consider an appeal, according to news website www.thepaper.cn.
At an earlier court appearance, Bao said he had set the bus on fire to take revenge on society and end his life because he had no money to treat his illness.
Bao, 35, a migrant worker from Zhangxian County in Gansu Province, said he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2005, and suffered a relapse in September 2013.
He said he was caught in a dilemma. To cure his condition he would have to quit work, but then he wouldn’t be able to afford the treatment. He said he felt helpless and depressed, so decided to end his life.
On July 5 last year, he traveled from Yiwu to Hangzhou, boarded a No. 7 bus, poured out oil from a container in his backpack and set it alight.
Of more than 80 passengers on the bus, 33 were injured, including 20 who suffered serious injuries. The cost of their treatment has reached 13 million yuan (US$2.08 million) so far, including 1.7 million yuan spent on Bao, the court heard.
At the hearing, Bao said: “I didn’t know any one of the passengers. But I know they have been severely hurt. I never reckoned on such a serious outcome. But it is too late to have regrets. I have to take responsibilities for what I have done.”
Bao’s lawyer Jin Liangxin asked the court to be lenient because Bao had admitted his guilt and he wanted to return to society and then donate his organs after he died.
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