China executes man who killed toddler in parking row
A police officer stands outside a court in China where 40-year-old Han Lei had been charged with killing a two-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a parking space. The man was executed on October 31, 2014. AFP PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Han Lei was convicted of taking the child from her pram and throwing her to the ground.
- This was after the girl's mother refused to make way for him to park his car in Beijing in July 2013.
- He and a friend in the vehicle drove away and the toddler died two days later of her injuries.
- Han was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for stealing a car but was released 2012.
BEIJING, Friday
A Chinese man who killed a two-year-old girl after a row with her mother over a parking space was executed on Friday, a court said.
Han Lei was convicted of taking the child from her pram and throwing her to the ground after her mother refused to make way for him to park his car in Beijing in July 2013.
He and a friend in the vehicle drove away and the toddler died two days later of her injuries, provoking widespread public outrage.
Han, now 40, was sentenced to death two months after the incident, and appealed against the penalty without success.
China's Supreme Court approved the sentence and he was executed on Friday, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said on a verified microblog account.
Han had reportedly told prosecutors last year he felt so guilty and distressed that he wanted to die, according to previous Chinese media reports.
"I caused such a calamity for the child... please make sure that I am sentenced to death," he was quoted as saying. "I don't want to live any more."
Han was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for stealing a car but was released 2012 after the sentence was commuted, the reports said.
