On May 7, Hu Bin, a college student from a wealthy and well-connected family, hit and killed 25 year-old Tan Zhuo while street racing with his friend in downtown Hangzhou City.
According to a security officer who witnessed the accident, Tan’s body “flew really high after the hit. He was more than 20 meters away from the crosswalk when he landed on the ground.”
Other witnesses said that the sports car was speeding at more than 150 kilometers per hour (90 mph).
However, on the next day, the Hangzhou Traffic Bureau’s press release stated that the driver was only driving 70 kilometers per hour at the time; it was not certain whether the victim was in the crosswalk; and current traffic law does not make any reference to anything related to “street racing.”
The case has caused uproar across China. Thousands of Hongzhou residents attended the May 10 funeral of this recent graduate of the elite Zhejiang University.
On July 15, the case was tried in Hongzhou Xihu District Court, however a photo and video released of the hearing raised suspicions that an impostor appeared in court for the killer Hu Bin. Some Chinese bloggers even claimed that the impostor is a taxi driver named Zhang Licai. The court denies such a claim.
On July 20, the court delivered a verdict and sentenced Hu Bin to three years imprisonment for a “traffic accident crime.”
According to a Chinanews Net report, the appeal application by the victim’s father includes two issues: First, whether the verdict should be based on a normal traffic accident. Second, whether an impostor stood trail for the killer in court; the verification of the identity of the person present in the court should be done in an open and transparent way.
The Procurator in the West Lake District, Hangzhou, said that they received the application, but has not determined whether to accept it.
Read the original Chinese article here.
