Drunken star sent to prison for six months

By Li Jiabao and Qin Zhongwei

BEIJING - Gao Xiaosong, the famous musician and movie director, was sent to prison for six months and fined 4,000 yuan ($615) on Tuesday for drunken driving and causing a four-car accident that injured three people.

"I am not making any point of defending myself," he said. "All I have is regret."

Gao admitted at Dongcheng District People's Court that he drank alcohol with two groups of friends before he got behind the wheel - sharing a bottle of white wine with one group and a bottle of whiskey with the other.

"I am willing (to take the punishment)," he said.

Gao caused the pileup in downtown Dongzhimen on May 9 shortly after finishing a meal at the Hotel Kunlun.

A breath test showed he had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood - three times the legal limit.

The 42-year-old was fined 1,000 yuan for having an expired driving license and was also banned from the roads for five years.

"It was only yesterday that I was taken out of the detention house in handcuffs for the first time in recent days and I saw, on my way, that people outside the vehicle I was traveling in were enjoying their freedom," he said. "I thought alcohol could free me but I lost my freedom because of drinking."

He vowed to become a life-long volunteer in persuading others not to drive after drinking and said he will help raise people's awareness by making informative movies and videos.

Gao Ming, the singer's lawyer, presented the court with letters from the injured victims in which they said Gao Xiaosong was sincere in his apologies and in offering compensation.

The lawyer asked the court to consider a lenient punishment.

Gao Xiaosong interrupted his own lawyer several times to admit his guilt.

Gao Ming told China Daily he believes the punishment is appropriate and said it will be up to his client to consider whether to appeal to the intermediate court.

Gao Xiaosong, once a student of Tsinghua University, built a reputation as a gifted songwriter for his well-received campus folk songs in the 1990s. He then developed into a versatile artist who was one of the three judges of China's Got Talent last year.

Hours before the accident on May 9, he announced at a news briefing that his latest film will be released in August.

As an outspoken celebrity, he once condemned Yao Jiaxin, a Xi'an college piano major student who ran over a woman and stabbed her eight times. On his mirco blog at the time he asked "how can those who do not care for life love music".

The words came back to haunt him after he caused the accident.

Gao is among the first group of drivers to face imprisonment for getting behind the wheel while drunk following the amendments of the Criminal Law and Road Traffic Safety Law on May 1. Drunken drivers can now be jailed for between one and six months.

Some 83 percent of Internet users who responded to a poll at chinadaily.com.cn said Gao's sentence was fair.

"I admire his talent and feel sorry about his mistake but a mistake is a mistake and you have to face it and bear it responsibly," Dreamshining, an Internet user, said on his micro blog on sina.com.cn.

Li Junjie, the first driver who was caught for drunken driving in Beijing, also received his sentence on Tuesday. He was jailed for two months and fined 1,000 yuan for dangerous driving.

After drinking 200 grams Chinese liquor and five or six bottles of beer on May 1, Li, who is from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was stopped by police officers on the way to his hotel. The test showed he had 159.6 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.