By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
A court rejected the application Friday for an arrest warrant for a Chinese student who was accused of assaulting a Korean man.
The decision was made one day after police detained him for kicking and hitting a 49-year-old Korean protester with a Chinese national flag, and hurling concrete tiles in a clash between Chinese students and anti-Chinese protestors during the Olympic torch relay in Seoul last Sunday.
The court said it decided against issuing the arrest warrant, as he was repentant over his misdeeds. In addition, his chances of fleeing the country or destroying evidence were slim as he lives in a campus dormitory.
His lawyer said that his client confessed that the violent outbursts were an impulsive action.
The student admitted the charges in the court and told reporters that he was sorry for the trouble he had caused.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy denied that it mobilized students studying in Korea to support the torch relay, which ended with violent clashes between the students and protestors.
The embassy allegedly offered 1 million won and transportation to Chinese students in Busan to help them come to Seoul to support the torch relay. It denounced the allegation as groundless.
``Who said so? I think such reports just fan nationalism,'' Zhao Dengyu, second secretary and consul for the embassy told reporters. ``I think they have only dealt with the bad aspects without introducing the 99 percent of good things.''
His strong denial and criticism came as he accompanied the Chinese student to the court hearing Friday afternoon.
However according to Busan Police Agency and Silla University, where the student studies Korean, an official from the Chinese Consulate in the port city asked the university to arrange four buses for Chinese students to travel to Seoul to support the relay.
A series of clashes on Sunday erupted as a small group of protesters demonstrated against China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and its crackdown on Tibetans.
Among 10.000 Chinese supporters, mostly college students, some reacted violently to the protest. They threw water bottles, stones, chunks of wood and beverage cans at the protestors.
In a series of incidents, Korean activists, a local newspaper photographer, other civic group members and riot police officers were assaulted and injured.
Chinese embassies in other countries have also been criticized for `sponsoring' the cheerleading of the worldwide flame relay.
Japanese newspapers reported that the Chinese Embassy in Japan allegedly encouraged a number of Chinese students to join the crowds when the torch arrived in Japan on April 26.
Chinese students allegedly received a notice from their embassy, asking them to mobilize all possible manpower to Nagano on April 26 to support the relay.
The mobilized students allegedly received free yellow T-shirts, a bottle of mineral water, a pen and Chinese national flag from the mission.