A Chinese court sentenced a man who attempted to exploit his father's senior police rank to flee a fatal road accident to six years in jail on Sunday, state media reported.
Li Qiming, 23, pleaded guilty to drunk driving and manslaughter by motor vehicle, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement from the People's Court in Wangdu County in northeast
China.
An official at the court confirmed a verdict was delivered on Sunday when contacted by AFP, but said he could not provide details.
The case of Li Qiming went viral on the Internet in China after he was accused of fatally striking a young woman pedestrian while driving drunk in the northern city of Baoding in October. He was 22
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at the time.
After the accident, he reportedly dared bystanders to take action against him, shouting "My father is Li Gang!", referring to the deputy director of the public security bureau in the district
where the incident took place.
The case stoked outrage among web users as the latest example of government officials and their relatives abusing their positions, just as the leadership in Beijing is trying to quell public anger
over a range of issues.
The victim, a university student, had been roller-skating on her campus with a friend when Li's car struck them both. The other woman suffered a broken leg but survived.
Describing the popular impact of the case, Xinhua wrote on Sunday: "'My father is Li Gang' became infamous as a catch phrase, which netizens worked into classical poetry, jokes and doggerel to vent their fury over the vicious words and behaviour of the privileged and the children of power and wealth."
Family members of the victim in the Li case were reportedly told to stop talking about it after they received compensation of 460,000 yuan ($A70,678).
Li had been charged with "causing death through traffic offences" by the court in Baoding, located in Hebei province -- a charge Internet users complained was too lenient.
The injured victim, 20-year-old Zhang Jingjing whose leg was broken, received 91,000 yuan in compensation, Xinhua reported.
The court statement said Li was given leniency because he confessed to his crimes and his family reconciled with the victims' families by paying compensation, the report said.
China's Internet portals barred users from leaving comments on articles reporting the sentence, but posts on microblogs railed against the perceived leniency of the sentence.
"Drive drunk + flee + one dead + one injured equals a sentence of only six years? Does this law apply only to the Heavenly Dynasty?" an Internet user on Netease wrote, drawing a comparison
to emperors who ruled by divine right.
