NE China hospital attacker jailed for life

HARBIN - A teenager who killed a doctor and injured three others at a local hospital in Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, has received a life sentence.

On Friday, Li Mengnan, 18, was found guilty or intentional homicide at the Intermediate People's Court of Harbin.

Li Mengnan, a 18-year-old man who killed a doctor and injured three others at a hospital in Harbin, is on trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Harbin, on Oct 19, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

He was also ordered to pay more than 680,000 yuan ($108,743) to the victims' families, in compensation.

Under Chinese law, because Li was younger than 18-years-old when he committed the crime, the death sentence was not applicable. A life sentence was the highest penalty he could receive, his lawyers said.

On March 23, 2012, Li, an out-patient with the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, attacked four medical workers with a knife after "misunderstandings" about his treatment program prescribed by doctors, the ruling said.

Li's defence lawyers argued that the hospital had misdiagnosed his condition. The court did not accept this.

The defendant was suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic disease that causes inflammation around the spinal vertebrae, as well as tuberculosis.

Li had received treatment from the hospital on several occasions over the past five years but was still not cured.

Hospital doctors would not administer the drug infliximab for treating ankylosing spondylitis as it could harm or even kill a tuberculosis carrier.

Li believed the doctors were refusing him treatment because he and his family were poor. At around 4 pm he bought a fruit knife from a nearby store and returned to the hospital.

He stabbed Wang Hao, a 28-year-old hospital intern, to death. Three others suffered injuries.

After the attack Li left the scene but returned to the hospital to receive treatment as he had tried to kill himself.

Police arrested Li at the hospital at around 5 pm.

The court did not accept that Li surrendered himself after the attack when he returned to the hospital for treatment.

It was not mentioned if Li planned to appeal.