Yang Jia (Chinese: 杨佳; born c. 1980)[1] is a Chinese citizen who has been sentenced to death for murdering six Shanghai police officers with a knife. He has received international media attention for the public sympathy accorded to him in China, where, according to exiled writer Ma Jian, Yang has become "a sort of national hero."[2]
[edit] BackgroundYang, a jobless 28-year old Beijing resident,[1] was reported to have been arrested and interrogated by the Shanghai police in October 2007 for riding an unlicensed bicycle.[1] He then sued the police for alleged maltreatment, to no avail.[1] [edit] StabbingsAccording to Chinese authorities and media, Yang Jia ignited eight petrol bombs at the front gate of the police headquarters in Zhabei, a Shanghai suburb, at about 9:40 a.m., July 1, 2008 – the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.[1] He then stabbed security guard Gu Jianming, who tried to stop Yang, with a knife. Subsequently, Yang charged into the building and randomly stabbed nine unarmed police officers, four in the lobby and duty room and five more while making his way up to the 21st floor, before police managed to subdue him. Six policemen suffered stab-wounds in their lungs, livers and necks and bled to death. Besides the knife and the molotov cocktails Yang carried with him a hammer, a dust mask and tear-gas spray.[3][4][5][6] [edit] Trial and verdictYang's trial was delayed on account of the 2008 Summer Olympics.[7] On 27 August 2008, Yang was tried in a one-hour,[8] non-public procedure at the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.[1] Four days later, the official news agency Xinhua announced that he had been found guilty of premeditated murder and received a death sentence,[9] as had previously been expected.[1] The death verdict against Yang was confirmed in an appeal trial, also conducted behind closed doors,[10] on 20 October 2008.[9] It will receive automatic review by the Supreme People's Court of China. [edit] Media coverage and public opinion in ChinaYang initially benefited from unusually sympathetic coverage in the state-controlled Chinese press. The Beijing News pointed out that Yang's appointed lawyer, Xie Youming, may have a conflict of interest because he is also a legal adviser for the city district that oversees the police station at issue.[7] Southern Weekend published a long, sympathetic front-page story,[7] while other Chinese papers hinted that Yang was wronged and demanded a fair trial.[7] In the week leading up to the trial, though, the Shanghai media fell silent on the case[7] and Chinese authorities increased efforts to censor Chinese internet coverage on the subject.[7][1] While there was initial public anger at the killings,[7] Western media noted that discourse on Chinese internet forums and blogs soon became largely sympathetic to Yang, with many expressing suspicions that Yang might not receive a fair trial and that the police might want to cover up wrongdoings of their own.[7] The Daily Telegraph quoted one Chinese blogger as praising Yang's "strong sense of the law" and another comparing him to Wu Song, a hero in Chinese literature.[1] A message left on Yang's MySpace account was reported to have read: "You have done what most people want to do, but do not have enough courage to do."[1] On 13 October 2008, a public protest in support of Yang occurred outside the Shanghai court in which Yang's appeal was heard. According to Agence France-Presse, about a dozen protesters wearing T-shirts with Yang's face showed up and were violently arrested by police.[10] The Epoch Times, a newspaper critical of the Chinese government, reported that over 1,000 people took part in the demonstration, many shouting anti-government slogans, and that about 40 were arrested. [11] [edit] References
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