A court in China has sentenced a man to death for killing 35 people last month by driving into a crowd, in an attack that raised national concern about mass killings.
Fan Weiqiu was venting his anger because he was unhappy with his divorce settlement, the court in the southern city of Zhuhai said in handing down the sentence on Friday, December 27.
The victims were exercising at a sports centre before the incident. Fan pleaded guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means, a court statement said.
Fan’s “criminal motive was extremely despicable, the nature of the crime was extremely vile, the means of the crime were particularly cruel, and the consequences of the crime were particularly severe, resulting in great social harm,” the court said in its judgement.
Chinese man sentenced to death for killing 35 people after driving into a crowd
The attack was one of several in China in late October and November and made Chinese leader Xi Jinping order local governments to take steps to prevent future “extreme cases.”
Fan’s sentence was the second one handed down in quick succession just weeks after the recent attacks, much faster than court cases normally take in China.
