Court acquits 2 men of rape after 10 years in jail
Source: Xinhua |
March 27, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A PROVINCIAL court in east China yesterday acquitted two men of rape charges for which they had already spent 10 years behind bars.
The Zhejiang Province Higher People's Court yesterday reversed its 2004 ruling that included a death sentence with two-year reprieve for Zhang Hui and a 15-year prison term for his uncle, Zhang Gaoping, for raping a woman in Hangzhou.
The court said "the acquittal was rendered, as there was new evidence showing the possibility of another suspect. Evidence presented during the previous trial was not enough to support the conviction."
Sources close to the court said investigators found another suspect whose DNA matched that was collected from the woman's body. The suspect is currently serving a prison term for another case.
The verdict from the first trial held that Zhang Hui and Zhang Gaoping carried the woman on their truck early on the morning of May 19, 2003. Police found the woman's body in a roadside ditch about 10am the same day.
They have been serving their prison terms in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The court said it received an appeal to review the case from Zhang Hui's father in February 2012. A closed door retrial was held last week.
In January, the court ordered a retrial for a 1995 robbery case in which four men were either handed death sentences with reprieve or life imprisonment. If proven innocent, they would have been wrongly jailed for 18 years.
The Zhejiang Province Higher People's Court yesterday reversed its 2004 ruling that included a death sentence with two-year reprieve for Zhang Hui and a 15-year prison term for his uncle, Zhang Gaoping, for raping a woman in Hangzhou.
The court said "the acquittal was rendered, as there was new evidence showing the possibility of another suspect. Evidence presented during the previous trial was not enough to support the conviction."
Sources close to the court said investigators found another suspect whose DNA matched that was collected from the woman's body. The suspect is currently serving a prison term for another case.
The verdict from the first trial held that Zhang Hui and Zhang Gaoping carried the woman on their truck early on the morning of May 19, 2003. Police found the woman's body in a roadside ditch about 10am the same day.
They have been serving their prison terms in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The court said it received an appeal to review the case from Zhang Hui's father in February 2012. A closed door retrial was held last week.
In January, the court ordered a retrial for a 1995 robbery case in which four men were either handed death sentences with reprieve or life imprisonment. If proven innocent, they would have been wrongly jailed for 18 years.
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