Beijing, March 28 (IANS) Relatives and neighbours of a Chinese villager who gave a fatal dose of pesticide to his bedridden elderly mother have sought leniency for him, saying it was a suicide.
Prosecutors in Guangzhou city, however, have accused Deng Mingjian, a migrant worker from Sichuan province, of murder, the Shanghai Daily reported.
Deng provided his 73-year-old mother pesticide last May in his rented house in Guangzhou’s Panyu District.
The woman, who was not named, had been paralysed for 20 years after two strokes and suffered complications. She said she wanted to die, the Panyu District People’s Court was told by Deng’s relatives and his former neighbours in Sichuan.
According to the Nanfang Daily, the villagers told the court, her son never complained despite her bad tempor and even would carry her on his back for medicine.
Deng Mingjian’s sister, Deng Mingfang, told the court that her mother had said she wanted to die.
Tang Chengkui, Deng ‘s lawyer, said his client had been “forced” to buy the pesticide. He called for a leniency, arguing that Deng merely met his mothers’s demands, rather than planning to kill her.
No verdict was announced.
