Beijing wheelchair bomber jailed for 6 years

A disabled Chinese man who set off a homemade explosive device at Beijing's international airport was sentenced to six years in jail on Tuesday, court authorities said. Ji Zhongxing, 34, who lost his left hand in the blast in July and appeared for his trial on a stretcher, was convicted of causing an explosion, according to a posting on a verified social media account run by Beijing's court authorities. The incident provoked an outburst of public sympathy for Ji, a former motorcycle driver who was confined to a wheelchair after reportedly being the victim of a brutal beating by police officers in the southern city of Dongguan in 2005. Before the blast, Ji passed out leaflets highlighting his struggle to sue authorities for the attack and warned passers-by to move away. The bombing spotlighted how frustration over low-level abuses in China can flare up to trouble the authorities, analysts said. Ji had "lost all hope with society" following an unsuccessful battle for compensation, Hong Kong media reported previously. But the court said any actions to seek justice must be done in a "legal, rational and orderly manner". "Any people must not infringe others' lawful rights or endanger public safety by taking extreme actions under the name of defending rights," said court authorities in a separate Sina Weibo post. Academics have estimated that protests -- about anything from abuse to corruption to pollution -- top 180,000 a year in China, even as the government devotes vast sums to "stability maintenance". But legal paths for Chinese to pursue justice are limited. Courts are subject to political influence and corruption, and a system meant to let citizens lodge complaints about authorities is ineffective, with petitioners routinely finding themselves detained.