Shanghai: A young man who drew a surprising amount of sympathy in China after being convicted of killing six policemen in Shanghai will get the death penalty after losing his final appeal today.

Dozens of angry Chinese massed outside the Shanghai Higher People s Court during the verdict. "He s a hero," one woman shouted. "The Chinese people have no right to speak," one man declared.

Widespread disgust in China over police behavior led to a wave of support for Yang Jia, who was accused of forcing his way into a Shanghai police station July 1 and killing six officers in a stabbing spree. Such violence is rare in China.

Even some state-run media published sympathetic profiles of Yang, asking what could have made the mild-mannered 28-year-old jobless man snap.

Police said Yang was taking revenge after police interrogated him on suspicion of having stolen the bike he was riding. Yang then sued the police for psychological damage, but the claim was rejected.

The highly sensitive original trial was closed to the media, and Shanghai media wasn t allowed to mention it. But some media and legal observers objected to Yang s lawyer in the original trial because he s a legal adviser for Shanghai's Zhabei district, which oversees the police station where the attack occurred. Yang was appointed a new lawyer for his appeal.

Last week, Yang s appeal drew at least a dozen angry supporters, who wore T-shirts with his face on them but were quickly dispersed by police.

A request for further psychological testing on Yang was turned down last week, with authorities saying Yang was not insane at the time of the stabbings.
Source : PTI