Hollywood Kung fu superstar Jackie Chan’s son was sentenced to six months in jail by a Chinese court for drug offenses, a far lighter sentence than that was projected ahead of his trial.
The Dongcheng District People’s Court which held a brief trial of Jaycee Chan, 32, also fined him 2,000 yuan (USD 326) after convicting him of providing a venue for drug users.
Jaycee, who like his father has worked as an actor and singer, earlier confessed to the court allowing others to take drugs four times in his home between 2012 and 2014.
Dressed in sportswear, Jaycee said he deserved punishment because he violated the law. He said he would never repeat the mistake, and that he hoped to be forgiven by the public, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Jaycee and Taiwan movie star Ko Chen-tung along with others were detained on August 14 last year from Jaycee’s home following complaints from public that they were using drugs.
Jackie and his family members were not present at the court, state-run CCTV reported.
The six months imprisonment and lighter fine were a surprise as the official media earlier projected that he could be sentenced for three years for the drug related offences.
Jaycee and Ko tested positive for marijuana and both admitted to having taken the drug. Police seized more than 100 grams of marijuana from Jaycee’s home.
“I just gave them information and I confessed because I didn’t know how to deal with the marijuana, and I just wanted to hand over [marijuana] to the country,” the South China Morning Post quoted Jaycee as saying.
Ko was released after 14 days in administrative detention, while Jaycee was prosecuted.
Although the trail attracted huge media interest – both in China and abroad – only a few journalists from state media were allowed to attend the hearing.
In a rare move, the court had also prepared a hall for reporters with TVs tuned to live broadcasts of a local news channel.
Born to Jackie, 60, and his wife, a Taiwanese actress Lin Feng-Jiao, Jaycee was raised in Los Angeles. He did not pursue studies after two semesters and has a penchant for luxury cars.
Earlier, Jackie expressed shame over his son’s involvement in the drug case and said he did not use his use political connections in China to bail him out, hoping that one day he would become an anti-drug ambassador like him.
