Society

'Wrongly jailed' farmer wants justice

By Ma Lie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-16 07:56

XI'AN - A farmer in Jingyang county of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, who claims he was wrongly detained for 472 days, has been struggling to get compensation.

Wu Zhifeng, 49, of Zhanggou village, went to the county public security bureau again on Thursday morning and applied for 80,000 yuan ($11,782) as compensation, but was again refused.

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"I don't understand why they can say there was no evidence to show that I was the murderer, but refuse to pay me for wrongfully detaining me for 472 days," Wu said.

On Sept 11, 2007, a woman in Wu's village was found dead in a well. The following day, Wu was detained by police.

"The police said that they found that the woman was killed at about 8 am that day, when I was watering the farmland near the well," Wu said.

The farmer was officially arrested on Nov 8, 2007.

On April 21, 2008, Xianyang People's Procuratorate charged Wu with rape and murder. The case was referred to Xianyang Intermediate People's Court, which held a hearing on June 24 and found that there was not enough evidence to prove Wu was the murderer. On Dec 12, 2008 the court charged the procuratorate to quash its indictment.

Wu Zhifeng, a farmer in Jingyang county, Shaanxi, holds the detention and release verdicts at the gate of local police bureau on Wednesday. [China Daily]

On Jan 17, 2009, Wu was granted bail, having been detained for 472 days.

On March 23, 2010, the county police bureau decided to release Wu from bail. Wu asked for compensation on May 10.

"I wanted them to give me an explanation by asking for the compensation," Wu said.

Heng Wenlong, head officer of the criminal police team of the county police bureau, would not give details of the case, but, as the senior police officer in charge of Wu's case, he said the police was still investigating the case and could not accept Wu's compensation application.

According to the county procuratorate, Wu's compensation application would only be accepted once the case was withdrawn.

Wu's case was just the latest to highlight flaws in the legal system.

Zhao Zuohai, a farmer who was wrongly jailed for about 10 years for murder, was given 650,000 yuan as State compensation in May.

Zhao in Zhecheng of Central China's Henan province was arrested and convicted in 2002 of murdering a fellow villager.

He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. The sentence was later commuted to a 29-year imprisonment.

The Henan Provincial High People's Court acquitted Zhao on May 7 this year after the supposed victim turned up alive.