Drink-driver who said 'my father is Li Gang' admits blame for death
The son at the centre of the infamous 'my father is Li Gang ' traffic accident at Hebei University last year admitted in court yesterday that he was responsible for the death of a student he ran over, and pleaded guilty to traffic offences.
Baoding's Wangdu County People's Court said it would hand down its verdict another day. The lawyer representing the dead student's family said he was expecting a 'not very severe sentence'.
Wangdu county prosecutors told the court that Li Qiming, the 22-year-old son of Li Gang, a deputy district police chief in Baoding, should face three to seven years' jail, according to Article 133 of the Criminal Law.
They charged Li Qiming with traffic offences after he ran over two women students while speeding through the campus in Baoding while drunk late at night on October 16. One of the women, 20-year-old Chen Xiaofeng, died. Li Qiming was arrested on October 24.
After running over Chen and Zhang Jingjing, Li Qiming was stopped by campus security guards and students and attempted to avoid punishment by referring to his father's influence. 'My father is Li Gang' quickly became an online catchphrase, sparking widespread outrage about the abuse of power by officials and their families.
Chen family lawyer Hu Yihua said the verdict would not be very severe, based on the way the case had developed. The authorities put pressure on Chen's family to accept 460,000 yuan (HK$544,000) in compensation and sign a letter of forgiveness in November.
'The sentence for a traffic offence is much lighter than for endangering public safety [which can attract between 10 years' jail and the death penalty],' Hu said.
Another lawyer, Zhang Kai, who was sacked by the Chen family in November, said the court was likely to hand down a sentence of five to six years' jail.
More than 40 police officers and traffic police were outside the court yesterday, along with county and city propaganda staff, preventing reporters and other people from getting close to the court's entrance.
About 300 people stood outside, waiting for the hearing to finish.
A member of Chen's family who attended the hearing, which lasted one hour and 40 minutes, said prosecutors had presented evidence and Li Qiming had pleaded guilty and made an apology. His lawyer, Zhang Jinlong, had pleaded for a lighter, suspended three-year jail sentence considering that compensation had been paid and Li Qiming had confessed and behaved well at the Hebei Institute of Communication and Baoding's TV station.
Chen's elder brother, Chen Lin , said: 'I was furious to hear that the lawyer was pleading for a lighter sentence because Li behaved well at university and during his internship.'
He said their father, Chen Guangqian , cried when the accident was described in court.
Chen Lin said: 'We still believe that Li should be charged with endangering public safety.'
He said he did not want to see power given precedence over the law, 'but if it happens, there is nothing I can do about it'.
Campus controversy
Lawyers expect a sentence over the fatal traffic accident at Hebei University to be a jail term of up to this many years: 6