Yang Jia (murderer)

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Yang Jia ( Chinese  杨佳 , Pinyin Yáng Jiā ; born August 27, 1980 ; † November 26, 2008 in Shanghai ) was a Chinese citizen who was executed for stabbing six police officers in Shanghai .

The Yang case caught the attention of the international media because of the public approval it received in China. Exiled writer Ma Jian said Yang has become "some kind of national hero."

background

Yang, an unemployed 28-year-old Beijing citizen who is described as a loner, was reportedly arrested by Shanghai police in October 2007 on suspicion that his bicycle had been stolen. He proved he had rented it, but said he was mistreated at the police station. He then unsuccessfully asked the police to admit it.

Murders

According to Chinese authorities and the media, Yang Jia lit eight Molotov cocktails at the main entrance to the police headquarters in Zhabei , a suburb of Shanghai at around 9:40 a.m. on July 1, 2008 - the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party . Guard Gu Jianming tried to stop Yang and was injured by him. After that, Yang stormed into the building and indiscriminately stabbed nine unarmed police officers, four in the waiting room and five more on the way to the 20th floor, before the police could overpower him.

Six policemen suffered stab wounds in the chest, lungs, liver, knees and neck and bled to death. In addition to the knife and Molotov cocktails , Yang had a hammer, dust mask, and tear gas spray with him.

According to the death sentence , Yang started his acts on the first floor of the police building at 9:40 am and was arrested at 9:45 am on the 20th floor of the building. In about five minutes, he is said to have inflicted and killed six people with a knife on the ground floor and on several other floors, injured others and stormed up the stairs to the 20th floor in between. Four of those killed were wounded with around ten stab wounds each, so Yang Jia must have fought with them in those five minutes - but was himself uninjured when he was arrested. The video recording of the crimes on the ground floor shows a masked perpetrator and a time after 9:45 a.m. These and other inconsistencies in the evidence used in the trial make it possible that Yang Jia did not commit these acts. Wang Rongfen carefully compiled these inconsistencies and published them online in 2011,

Trial and Execution

The court hearing to Yang was due to the 2008 Olympic Games postponed. On August 27, 2008, after an hour of trial, Yang was sentenced in Shanghai No. 2 People's Intermediate Court . Four days later, the official Xinhua News Agency announced that he had been found guilty of premeditated murder and that he had been sentenced to death as expected .

The death sentence against Yang was confirmed in an appellate hearing on 20 October of 2008. The appeals court ruled that Yang was sane.

On November 21, 2008, the Supreme People's Court upheld the death sentence. Yang was executed on November 26, 2008.

Media Audience and Public Opinion in China

Yang first enjoyed unusually positive coverage in the state-controlled Chinese press . The Beijing News revealed that Yang's attorney Xie Youming may have a conflict of interest as he also works as an advisor to the district administration, the superior authority of the police station concerned. Southern Weekend published a long sympathetic report that took up a full page. Other Chinese newspapers pointed out that Yang had been wronged and called for a fair trial. In the week leading up to the trial, the Shanghai media ignored the case and the Chinese authorities stepped up their efforts to censor Internet coverage of the issue.

Although there was initially public displeasure with the murders, the Western media noted that the discourse on Chinese internet forums and blogs was very sympathetic to Yang, with many suspecting that Yang would not receive a fair trial and that the police were theirs want to cover up their own wrongdoings. The Daily Telegraph quotes a Chinese blogger who praised Yang's "keen sense of justice" and another who compared him to Wu Song , a hero of Chinese literature. A message on Yang's MySpace page reportedly read, "You did what most people want to do but don't have the courage to do."

On October 13, 2008, a public protest was held in front of the Shanghai Court where the appeal hearing was taking place. According to Agence France-Presse , around 12 demonstrators wearing T-shirts with Yang's face were forcibly arrested by police.

Following his execution, Yang continued to post on the Internet to celebrate. Agence France-Presse reports that very few Internet users believed that Yang deserved his fate, citing the following post by a Chinese forum user as typical of many: “If you hold a knife at the police, it will end like this . But Chinese history will forever remember Yang Jia's name. ”At the traditional memorial festival for the deceased in early April 2009, police arrested several people in Beijing who tried to commemorate Yang Jias.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lawyers Talks About Yang Jia ( Chinese ) Sina.com . July 8, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  2. ↑ Aida Edemariam: Playing with fire , The Guardian . August 8, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2008. 
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Malcolm Moore: Chinese cop-killer becomes internet hero , Daily Telegraph . August 27, 2008. 
  4. ↑ a b c China executes Shanghai police killer: officials ( Memento from January 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ↑ Chinese Ministry of Public Security sends condolence to five policemen killed, CCTV.com (July 2, 2008)
  6. ↑ Toll from stabbing rampage rises, Herald Sun (July 2, 2008)
  7. ↑ Man attacks Shanghai police station killing five International Herald Tribune ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (July 1, 2008)
  8. ↑ Man who killed 6 city cops gets death penalty, Shanghai Daily ( December 4, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ), September 2, 2008
  9. ↑ 公 、 检 、 法 、 辩 ， 合谋 构陷 - 杨佳 案 剖析 （Police, prosecutors, courts and defense lawyers in collusion to twist the facts - analysis of the Yang Jia case
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h Cara Anna: Chinese defend accused police killer , Associated Press . August 27, 2008. Archived from the original on August 31, 2008. 
  11. ↑ Angela Xu: Man who killed 6 city cops gets death penalty , Shanghai Daily . September 2, 2008. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved on September 1, 2008. 
  12. ^ Death for Shanghai police killer , BBC News . September 1, 2008. 
  13. ↑ a b Rare protest in China in support of police killer , Agence France-Presse . October 12, 2008. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2008. 
  14. ↑ China police killer loose appeal , BBC News . October 20, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2008. 
  15. ↑ Killer 'of sound mind,' Shanghai court decides, Shanghai Daily ( Memento of December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), August 14, 2008
  16. ↑ Scholar beaten at Tiananmen grave , BBC . April 8, 2009. 
personal data
SURNAME Yang, Jia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION alleged Chinese murderer
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1980
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 2008
Place of death Shanghai