Death sentences for 2 child rapists cut to life in jail at retrial
Print Edition
A COURT in central China’s Hunan Province yesterday commuted to life in prison the death sentences it had earlier handed down to two men convicted of raping the daughter of a social campaigner.
In October 2006, the 11-year-old child of social campaigner Tang Hui was raped and forced into prostitution. The youngster was rescued by police about two months later.
On June 5, 2012, the Hunan Higher People’s Court found Zhou Junhui and Qin Xing guilty of rape, organizing prostitution and forcing others into prostitution, and sentenced them to death. Four accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment, while a fifth was given a 15-year term.
However, in June of this year, a collegiate bench of the Supreme People’s Court annulled the two death penalties and ordered the provincial higher court to retry the case.
A retrial was held on July 25 and the final ruling was delivered yesterday.
The court said the men’s crimes did not warrant the death penalty.
As well as the prison sentences, Zhou had 10,000 yuan (US$1,630) of his personal wealth confiscated, while Qin also had 10,000 yuan confiscated and was fined a further 5,000 yuan.
Tang Hui came to the attention of the public after protesting in front of the Yongzhou municipal government building in August 2012, while calling for harsher punishments for convicted criminals.
As a result, Tang was sent to a labor camp in Yongzhou for “seriously disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society.” However, she was released just eight days later amid a public outcry.
On January 22, 2013, Tang filed a lawsuit at the Intermediate People’s Court in Yongzhou in which she asked for compensation.
Three months later, the court ruled that Tang was not entitled to compensation, so she appealed to the provincial higher people’s court, which ordered the Yongzhou municipal re-education through labor commission to compensate her for infringing upon her personal freedom.
Her case helped bring about the abolishment of the reeducation through labor program late last year.
Re-education through labor, known as “laojiao” in Chinese, allows police to detain people for up to four years without an open trial.
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