Beijing lawyers to defend suspect in Shanghai police attack
14/7/2008 16:54
Two lawyers have offered to defend Beijing man Yang Jia, who has been
charged with the murders of six policemen and injuring another four in a knife
attack in Shanghai two weeks ago.
Yang's father reached an agreement with
Beijing Xiongzhi Law Firm on Saturday, entrusting two of its lawyers to defend
Yang. But the arrangement was yet to be confirmed by Yang himself, said Xiong
Liesuo, one of the lawyers.
Yang, 28, who allegedly attacked police in Zhabei
District of Shanghai on July 1, is being prosecuted by the Shanghai Municipal
People's Procuratorate.
"A death sentence is likely, but that doesn't mean
it's pointless to defend him," said Xiong, 40.
Xiong is scheduled to meet
Yang this week and, with Yang's agreement, he will be working with colleague
Kong Jian. "We'll look into his file, double-check all details and make sure his
case is heard, investigated and judged fairly."
Xiong and his colleagues
dropped in at Yang's Beijing residence shortly after they read about the knife
attack on the Internet. Yang's parents are divorced and he lived with his mother
in an apartment in Chaoyang District, in the north of Beijing.
"His mother
was not home, so we left a note on the door," said Xiong. "Yang's father soon
called us. We knew his parents were both poor, so we offered our services at no
charge."
Yang was 14 when his parents divorced. His friends and relatives
said he became introverted and rarely talked after that.
"He never talked
about his parents," said Deng Shibo, Yang's best friend from primary school.
"Every time I asked about his family, he would quickly change the
topic."
After Yang finished junior high, he was trained as a salesman at a
local technical school. He worked at a department store in northern Beijing for
a few months and about a year at a Carrefour outlet. Most of the years he was
unemployed and lived on his mother's pension plus 800 yuan (114 US dollars) a
month his father gave him.
Though he rarely talked in person, Yang was active
on the Internet. He spent hours chatting with friends and writing blogs. His
outright denial of any dates concerned his mother, but in his blog, he said he
was "a bachelor eager to meet girls".
His last diary entry was posted on June
4, after he went mountain climbing with friends in Beijing. "Next time I'll
remain in the lead," he wrote.
No one knew why less than four weeks later,
Yang allegedly stabbed a security guard at a Shanghai police branch in Zhabei
and started a fire at its gate, before forcing himself into the building and
attacking nine police officers.
Revenge for a lengthy interrogation last year
was cited as the cause of the stabbing spree, according to authorities with
local police.
"It's hard to understand why he did that," said Yang's aunt.
"He always followed the rules."
Yang's father said he never even fought with
other boys when he was a child.
In mid June, Yang asked his friend Li Jia to
help him book a one-way ticket to Shanghai. "He said he was there last year and
wanted very much to go back."
Until the end of June, he was still chatting
with his friends on the Internet.
Xinhua
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