Treatment ruling for subway push mental patient

BEIJING - A Beijing court has sentenced a mental patient to compulsory medical treatment after he was convicted of pushing a passenger in front of a subway train and seriously injuring him.

Sources with Beijing Haidian District People's Court told Xinhua on Monday that the schizophrenia sufferer, surnamed Song, had been given compulsory psychiatric treatment for "being a danger to public security." ? ?

The ruling came after the court rejected an application from Song's family to take care of him themselves at home, and despite their promise that he will do no harm to society any more.

Song, a Beijing resident, was convicted of pushing a passenger, whose surname the court gave as Li, onto subway tracks from the platform on November 30, 2012, in China's capital. Li was severely injured by the train.

Song was put under protective restraint measures in January after an assessment proved that he was suffering from mental illness and should be exempt from criminal penalties.

The court said Song, whose mental illness was diagnosed in 2007, had on many occasions in 2012 been accused of insulting and beating others without reason before the subway push.