Fugitive gets life in prison for death in hit-and-run

After 10 years on the run, a fugitive was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday in Beijing, due to a death he caused in a callous hit-and-run.

Zhang Xiangui hit a 71-year-old pedestrian in Fangshan district, Beijing, in January 2001. Zhang and his father-in-law then took the wounded victim from the scene to a remote area of Zhuozhou, Hebei province, leaving him to die in the snow-covered landscape. The man's body was found two days after the accident.

Zhang's father-in-law turned himself in and was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for intentional manslaughter.

Despite Zhang explaining that he abandoned the man because he believed him to be dead, the court ruled that Zhang was guilty of intentional homicide, expressing serious condemnation of his laissez-faire attitude toward the old man's life.

(China Radio International)