A court in Beijing on Friday upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of killing a two-year-old girl after snatching her from her pram and throwing her to the ground in July.

The Beijing Higher People's Court on Friday morning rejected the killer's appeal and gave its final judgment on the crime of intentional homicide.

Han Lei, 39, who claimed to be drunk at the time, grabbed the girl and threw her to the ground as he argued with her mother over a parking space in Beijing's Daxing District on July 23. He fled the scene but was arrested the next day.

The girl was severely injured and died days later in the hospital.

Han was sentenced to death by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on Sept. 25 on charges of intentional homicide, but appealed to have his crime reduced to involuntary homicide on the grounds that he didn't know it was a baby carriage and that he was hurling a baby.

Han had been released from prison for another crime just nine months before committing the crime of intentional homicide, according to the Beijing Higher People's Court.

According to Chinese law, involuntary homicide carries a sentence of three to seven years in prison, while intentional homicide carries a mandatory death sentence.

The death sentence in Han's case will be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval.

On Sept. 25, an accessory to the crime, Li Ming, who drove Han away from the site and helped him to hide, was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment for the crime of harboring a criminal.

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