China sentences to death driver who killed passenger of ride-hailing firm Didi

A court in China handed the death sentence on Friday to a man who raped and killed a passenger of ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing last year, while he was employed as a driver. The court in the eastern coastal city of Wenzhou, where the driver, Zhong Yuan, 28, committed the crime in August, said in a post on its Twitter-like Weibo account it had ordered the death penalty.

The high-profile case triggered fierce public and government criticism of Didi, which suspended its carpool service Hitch after the incident and pledged a business overhaul to put a greater emphasis on safety. Didi said it has no comment on the court sentence. (Reporting by Yilei Sun in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)