A court in
central China's Hunan province on Friday rejected a demand for compensation by
the mother of a young rape victim who is suing a local authority for putting her
into a labor camp for petitioning.
After a
one-day trial, the Intermediate People's Court in Yongzhou denied Tang Hui's
request for 1,464 yuan (US$235) in compensation from the city's Re-education
Through Labor Commission for infringing upon her personal freedoms.
The court
also rejected Tang's request for a written apology from the commission and
1,000 yuan (US$160) in compensation for mental suffering.
The court
said the sentence given to Tang was based on the circumstances surround her
breaking the law, and the sentence was both clear and legal. Tang said she
would file an appeal.
On October
2006, Tang's then 11-year-old daughter was kidnapped, raped and forced into
prostitution. She was rescued on Dec. 30 of that year. Tang was arrested while
demanding harsher punishments for the men guilty of the crime and was sent to a
labor camp in Yongzhou for what officials called seriously disturbing social
order and exerting a negative impact on society by petitioning in front of
local government buildings on Aug. 2, 2012. She was sentenced to 18 months in
the camp, but was released eight days later amid a public outcry urging her
release.
On June 5
last year, the Hunan Provincial Higher People's Court sentenced two of the
girl's kidnappers to death. Four others were given life sentences and another
one received a 15-year term.
On January
22, Tang filed a lawsuit at the Intermediate People's Court in Yongzhou city,
and the court accepted the case on January 28.
At the
court hearing on Friday, Tang's lawyer said the commission had illegally
infringed upon her personal freedom, otherwise it would not have withdrawn the
sentence later. The defendant's lawyer said the decision to rescind the
sentence was made because Tang had a daughter who was still a minor in need of
her mother's care.
Tang's case
is one of a number which have sparked public calls for the abolition of the
labor camp system, which allows police to detain people for up to four years
without an open trial. Ma Huaide, vice president of the China University of
Political Science and Law, said it is widely expected that the case will become
a landmark for such reform.
Re-education
through labor was approved by the top legislature and established in the 1950s,
a time when the Communist Party was consolidating the newly founded republic
and enforcing its views of social order.
Ma said the
system has played an important part in maintaining social stability over the
years, but more drawbacks have been found in recent times. Some government
officials have abused their power to take advantage of the system to penalize
and even physically torture people in labor camps. It is also considered a
convenient way for authorities to deal with problematic dissidents and
petitioners.
This year,
the government will push reform of the controversial program, according to the
national political and legal work conference that concluded in January.
"Although Tang lost the case, the public awareness it has triggered will
not stop," said Ma, believing the case will help progress in the nation's
legal system.
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