A police officer goes through pictures taken at the scene of the explosion in Dongzhimen with defendant Lei Sen at Dongcheng district court on Wednesday. [Photo/China Daily]

Suspect admits aiming for US student before detonation

A jobless loner who injured an American student when he detonated a homemade explosive device in Dongzhimen admitted on Wednesday that he had purposely targeted foreigners.

It was initially believed Lei Sen, 22, randomly set off the blast last October by remote control. However, at Dongcheng district people's court he confessed to picking out victim Michael Charles after seeing him in the street.

"I saw him approaching and I set off the bomb. I intended to target foreigners," said Lei, whose motivation was to "avenge a grudge against society".

Charles, who studies Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University, suffered minor injuries to his right leg. He did not attend the hearing on Wednesday.

Without offering any explanation why he had wanted to hurt a foreigner, Lei, from Sichuan province, suggested his behavior was a result of serious psychological problems, including a strong inferiority complex.

Su Jianyou, attorney for the defense, said his client once claimed he had no idea who he wanted to "take revenge on" but in his mind believes all foreigners are rich.

In mitigation, he added that Lei is a depressed character with basically no friends, and is not on good terms with either his adoptive parents or birth parents. "Simply punishing him with the law is not enough for guys like him," said the lawyer. "He needs psychological treatment and counseling to save him."

With only a junior high school diploma, Lei worked in odd jobs in Guangzhou for several years before moving to Beijing less than a month before the blast. After learning how to make explosives on the Internet, he built a device in his rented apartment in Huairou district using components taken from a remote-controlled toy car.

The bomber chose Dongzhimen as he vaguely knew it as a busy area bustling with foreigners, said Su. He hid the device in bushes about 10 meters away from the entrance of the Sky Plaza building.

Lei said he fled the scene as soon as he saw the mushroom-shaped cloud in the sky. Police eventually caught him at Beijing West Railway Station six days later.

Charles had just left a nearby MacDonald's restaurant when the device exploded. He was taken to hospital shortly after. The student declined to comment about his experience when contacted by METRO earlier this week, although the court heard he has dropped his claim for compensation.

Following the trial, Su revealed that Lei had also failed in an attempted to detonate a similar bomb beneath an overpass in Xizhimen, Xicheng district, several days before his Dongzhimen attack.

The defendant, who faces three years to 10 years in prison, looked to be in a daze for much of the hearing and refused to talk to the press as he was escorted from the courtroom. A sentence is pending.