Sentences in Tangshan case based on catalog of crimes

On Friday, Chen Jizhi was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined 320,000 yuan ($45,000). Among other crimes, he was found guilty of being the ringleader of the brutal assault on four women in a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, Hebei province. Another 27 suspects involved in the cases received their sentences ranging from six months to 11 years in prison plus fines.

Six of the defendants, including Chen, were ordered to pay compensation to the four women, including their medical fees. Chen and his companions inflicted a severe beating on the women after a quarrel erupted when one of them rejected his advances. The severity of Chen's sentence has prompted some to suggest that the court may have been overly influenced by public outrage at the attack.

The fierce battering inflicted on the women was caught on the restaurant's video and it soon went viral on domestic social media networks provoking outrage, which prompted the higher authorities to assign the case to the judiciary in another city in the province.

But suggestions that the court was influenced by public opinion are unfounded. The police investigation found that Chen was the leader of a criminal gang, which had committed numerous crimes over the past 10 years, such as operating gambling dens and robbery. He and the others, who received heavy sentences, were convicted of a variety of crimes, not just the assault on the women. Cases have also been filed against 15 people holding public positions, eight of whom have been detained and are under investigation on suspicion they provided protection to the gang.

The court will not have been swayed by the notoriety of the case, in the same way that it has not been prompted to heed those irrational voices calling for Chen to receive the death penalty.

There is, and there should be only one yardstick for a court in making a verdict, and that should be the law. Thanks to all the systemic arrangements to ensure transparency in the case, the sentences are clearly based on the evidence presented to the court.