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BEIJING (AFP) - A disabled Chinese man who set off a homemade explosive device at Beijing's international airport went on trial Tuesday, 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.
Before the blast, Ji passed out leaflets highlighting his struggle to sue authorities for the attack and warned passers-by to move away.
Ji had "lost all hope with society" following an unsuccessful battle for compensation, Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV reported.
Internet users expressed sympathy for Ji after the incident, and did so again on Tuesday.
"For this social tragedy, society and the government must take responsibility," wrote one person on Sina Weibo, a social media service similar to Twitter.
"This society is too cold, who can you reach out to?" asked another.
Academics have estimated that protests -- about anything from abuse to corruption to pollution -- top 180,000 a year in China, even as the government devotes vast sums to "stability maintenance".
But legal paths for Chinese to pursue justice are limited.
Courts are subject to political influence and corruption, and a system meant to let citizens lodge complaints about authorities is ineffective, with petitioners routinely finding themselves detained.
Ji Zhongxing faces trial at the Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court on Tuesday.
A wheelchair-bound man who detonated an explosive at Beijing’s airport in July in protest over an alleged beating by local authorities, faced trial Tuesday in a case that has drawn widespread attention to the desperation of some Chinese petitioners.
Photos from the official Xinhua news agency showed 34-year-old Ji Zhongxing, from eastern China’s Shandong province, being rolled into a Beijing courtroom Tuesday on a stretcher, and dressed in what looked like pajamas or a hospital gown.
The proceedings, which lasted roughly 2 ½ hours, concluded with Mr. Ji voicing regret over his act, and asking the court for a second chance, according to a description of the trial posted to the official Sina Weibo account of the Beijing courts.
Mr. Ji’s lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan, said he had put in an innocent plea for his client at the trial, as he believed the explosion had been unintentional.
It wasn’t known when a verdict would be delivered.
Mr. Ji detonated a homemade explosive at Beijing airport’s Terminal 3 arrivals zone on July 20 after police stopped him from distributing leaflets to draw attention to his allegations he was beaten by local authorities in the southern city of Dongguan in 2005 in an incident he claimed left him partially paralyzed.
Mr. Ji was working in Dongguan as a motorcycle driver and was carrying a passenger at the time of the incident. A court investigation said Mr. Ji’s injuries occurred when his motorcycle collided with police, Xinhua has reported, and not from being beaten. Police in Dongguan have said they are re-examining Mr. Ji’s case.
Mr. Liu, Mr. Ji’s lawyer, said he hoped the verdict in the case wouldn’t come until the review of Mr. Ji’s case in Dongguan is complete.
Photos and video of the airport explosion spread rapidly across the Web this summer, prompting an unexpected outpouring of support for Mr. Ji.
His case shone a light on the frustrations encountered by many petitioners as they meander through China’s courts and its byzantine petitioning system. Many of those who allege abuses by local authorities travel to Beijing where they attempt—often unsuccessfully—to win central authorities’ attention for their plight. This phenomenon has in turn given rise to informal detention centers known commonly as “black jails,” where petitioners are held before being returned from Beijing to their home districts.
The explosion at Beijing’s airport was one in a number of violent incidents in which petitioners’ grievances featured prominently. In another case this summer, a man in the southeast city of Xiamen set fire to a bus, killing 47 people. The man, who was unemployed, had also been a petitioner.
