China
23:09, 30-Jan-2018
Chinese man awarded 1.91 million yuan after 15 years in jail
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After 15 years in jail, a Chinese man has been awarded 1.91 million yuan (about 302,425 US dollars) in compensation after being wrongly convicted of indecent assault.
Zhou Yuan (who used the name Zhou Yi in the compensation application) was jailed in 1997 after being found guilty of molesting women in Yining City in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.
In a public statement on Tuesday, Xinjiang's superior court said Zhou's conviction had been overturned and the compensation awarded.
The sum includes 496,460 yuan (78,535 US dollars) for mental injury, which was added to the scope of the State Compensation Law of China in 2010.
The court ruled last November that the facts used in Zhou’s trial were “unclear and the evidence insufficient.”
It also called for the restoration of the reputation of Zhou, who had admitted to 38 indecency cases.
Zhou Yuan was released in 2012, 15 years after he was accused of intentional injury and indecency. /VCG Photo
Zhou Yuan was released in 2012, 15 years after he was accused of intentional injury and indecency. /VCG Photo
Zhou was sentenced to death with reprieve in 1998. However, during the first trial, a suspect named Huo Yong was arrested and confessed criminal means and targets “extremely similar” to the case of Zhou.
His sentence had been commuted subsequently to life imprisonment and then 15 years in jail, before he was released in 2012.
Zhou’s mother, Li Bizhen, had been campaigning to clear her son’s name for many years.
The case has been described as another example of the justice system’s ability to right wrongs, after it was widely covered by local media outlets, including Thepaper, Bjnews and Nanfang Metropolis Daily.
It is also called “the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region version of Nie Shubin,” whose case is well-known in the country.
Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 at the age of 20 after being found guilty of killing a woman in Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. /VCG Photo
Nie Shubin was executed in 1995 at the age of 20 after being found guilty of killing a woman in Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. /VCG Photo
Nie has had his conviction for rape and murder overturned in 2016, 21 years after he was executed. His mother had been trying to prove his innocence for two decades.
The family later received a little more than 2 million yuan (316,360 US dollars) in compensation from the state.