China's 'BMW killer' case upheld

The case of apparent road rage attracted nationwide interest

A controversially lenient sentence for a wealthy Chinese woman whose BMW car ran over a peasant has been upheld.

Su Xiuwen, who drove into a crowd last October, was originally sentenced to a suspended jail term.

But popular anger at the ruling, and Mrs Su's political links, persuaded the government to review the case.

A judicial panel has now decided the ruling was "appropriate", and agreed that Mrs Su had no ill intent, but instead was a bad driver.

The case began last October when a tractor pulling a load of green onions scraped the side of Mrs Su's metallic-silver BMW in a crowded market in the northern city of Harbin.

Mrs Su reportedly swore and hit out at the farmer and his wife who had got down from their tractor to apologise, then drove her car into the growing crowd on the roadside, killing the farmer's wife and injuring 12 others.

Ms Su's two-year suspended sentence for what the judge ruled was an "accidental traffic disturbance" touched off rumours that her wealthy businessman husband was related to senior provincial officials.

The rumours and unease spread particularly quickly via the internet, prompting local officials to agree to begin a comparatively rare review of the case.

But the review panel, made up of provincial security and legal officials, has approved the court's judgement, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Xinhua said that allegations that Mrs Su's family tried to menace and bribe some witnesses, or that Mrs Su benefited from her links to provincial officials, had not been substantiated.