Court reviews 1994 murder case after prosecutors express doubts
Print Edition
A court in southeast China’s Fujian Province is reviewing a 1994 murder case after prosecutors said the original verdicts were based on unclear facts and insufficient evidence.
The four men sentenced to death for the crime have always insisted on their innocence, claiming they were tortured into making confessions.
On January 13, 1994, 66-year-old Zheng Jinrui was found dead at his home in the village of Qianfan in Putian City. Doors had been forced open and rooms ransacked. He had been tied up and gagged.
Police quickly apprehended fellow villagers Cai Jinsen, Xu Jinlong, Zhang Meilai and Xu Yusen.
On June 5, 1995, Cai was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
The others, initially sentenced to death, had their sentences suspended on April 4, 1999, with a court saying “they weren’t criminals who deserved to be executed.”
Cai was released on August 9 last year but the other three are still behind bars, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.
The newspaper said that a key witness in the case, who said he had bought gold stolen from Zheng’s house from Xu and Zhang, had admitted giving false testimony.
The witness, Chen Guotai, told the paper: “Police took away my father after he just underwent surgery. The village chief told me to cooperate with police so as to have my father back. And then I agreed to give the so-called testimony.”
Cai told the paper that he didn’t dare demand justice while he was still in prison as he was afraid it might affect his reprieve. But he contacted a lawyer as soon as he was released.
“I was wrongly convicted. If the court can return my innocence, then I’m truly free,” he said.
Cai said he had visited a friend on the day of the murder, where he met the other three people who were subsequently apprehended.
He said he had knew nothing about the murder but was beaten so badly by police that he eventually confessed. Because police believed the offense couldn’t have been committed by one person, they forced him to name names and he told about his new friends.
“I couldn’t remember any word from my confession because I just repeated what police told me to say,” he said.
According to the newspaper, several people who shared the same cell as Xu said he had been forced to drink boiling water when he was being questioned by the police about the crime.
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