Man jailed for flight bomb hoaxes

Source:Xinhua-Global Times Published: 2013-11-6 23:38:01

A 27-year-old man who made false bomb threats that affected flights in six cities in May was sentenced to five years in jail by a court in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, on Tuesday.

Wang Hongliang was jailed for fabricating terror information, according to a ruling by the People's Court of the Bao'an district of Shenzhen. Wang said in court that he would not appeal the verdict.

Wang was previously sentenced to three years in jail on June 26, 2006, for extortion, according to the court. 

According to the court, Wang made six bomb threat calls on May 15, causing plane diversions, emergency landings or delays to 27 flights in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Lanzhou, Xi'an, Nanjing and Urumqi.

He was detained on May 16 in a hostel in Changping township in the city of Dongguan, also in Guangdong.

The court said the bomb threats had affected flights, triggered emergency responses at airports and had severely disturbed social order.

Wang's deeds also caused economic losses to airlines. Shenzhen Airlines and Shanghai Juneyao Airlines reported that their direct economic losses caused by the hoaxes totaled about 397,000 yuan ($65,000).

China's Supreme Court in September released interpretations of the country's criminal law on spreading false threats, which specified that those who intentionally disrupt flights by fabricating threats may receive punishments ranging from detention to a jail term of up to five years, or more than five years for those whose actions have severe consequences.

Wang was the first person sentenced for making false threats about public transport since the country this year made calls to strengthen punishments for people spreading false information.

Ruan Qilin, a criminal law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that the verdict handed down in this case shows that the court has followed the clarified judicial interpretation.

"Some might think the punishment is not harsh enough, but according to the new judicial interpretation, the court's verdict was without any faults," Ruan said.

Meanwhile, bomb hoaxes have been common in recent weeks.

Three suspects, surnamed Tan, Xie and Wang are allegedly responsible for three bomb hoax cases that happened on October 27, 28 and 31, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Saturday.

The Changsha Huanghua International Airport in Central China's Hunan Province and Fuzhou Changle International Airport in Southeast China's Fujian Province received phone calls on October 27 and 28 respectively, saying there was a bomb on an airplane.

On October 31, a man called the Changsha Huanghua International Airport twice, saying there were bombs on a number of airplanes.

Without knowing how serious it is to fabricate a bomb threat, a man surnamed Zhou called the Nanchang Changbei International Airport at 2:37 pm on Sunday, reporting a bomb on flight CA1512. The hoax delayed passengers for three hours. Zhou was soon detained.

Zhou said he had just read reports of the bomb hoaxes, and he became interested in carrying out a hoax of his own "to see if he could pull it off."

Xinhua - Global Times



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