Harbin court hears hospital attack case

HARBIN - The Intermediate People's Court of Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, started to hear Wednesday a hospital attack case, which left one person dead and three others injured in March.

The hearing is open to the public.

Li Mengnan, 18, was charged with intentional homicide after he allegedly attacked four medical workers with a knife in the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University on March 23, 2012.

Prosecutors say he was motivated to carry out the attack due to "misunderstandings towards the treatment program prescribed by doctors".

Wang Hao, a 28-year-old intern of the hospital, was stabbed to death, and the other three were injured, according to the prosecutors.

Police caught Li later at the hospital on the same day, when he was receiving emergency treatment as he tried to kill himself following the attack.

Li was suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic disease that causes inflammation around the spinal vertebrae, along with tuberculosis.

Doctors of the hospital said Li was not given the drug for treating ankylosing spondylitis as infliximab could harm or even kill a tuberculosis carrier.

Li confessed during the trial, saying he took full responsibility for what he did.

His lawyer requested a lighter sentence saying Li was younger than 18 years old when he committed the crime.

Prosecutors and his lawyer also debated whether the hospital had misdiagnosed Li's condition before the attack, and whether Li surrendered himself after the attack, as he later returned to the hospital instead of turning to other hospitals for treatment.

The court will announce the sentence at a later date.