Judge describes life on the other side of the fence

In March, Liu Deshan, a former judge in Henan province, received compensation of about 100,000 yuan ($15,000) after being wrongly detained for 488 days.

Five years ago, Liu, 52, was convicted on charges that he abused his power to reduce a prisoner's sentence, but his conviction was overturned at the end of 2011, according to a statement issued by the Supreme People's Court.

Wang Qi, a court clerk who worked on the case, was also wrongfully convicted. He was also paid about 100,000 yuan after being detained for 501 days, the statement said. The statement was unusual, almost unprecedented, because it is rare for the nation's top court to comment on cases involving former officials. The change came after the government decided to move against miscarriages of justice in late 2012.

The statement said that during interrogation at a detention house in Henan's Xunxian county, Liu insisted that he had never abused his position and argued that his actions were in line with a judicial interpretation of the Criminal Procedure Law.

In 2013, Liu applied for compensation and asked detention officers and prosecutors in Xunxian to apologize to him and restore his reputation.

He shared his experience of detention, including being tortured during interrogation and other illegal methods the police used to collect evidence, with Southern Weekly, a newspaper in Guangdong province. The former judge described how he was forced to stand facing a wall for long periods of time, and was not allowed to rest or relax between interrogation sessions.

"The time in detention made me realize how poorly judicial officers protected the rights of defendants, and the importance of ensuring the legality of every procedure in every case," he told the paper. "I respected the law all the time, and I always tried my best to give a fair verdict."

Yan Bin, a lawyer in Henan, praised the Supreme Court's statement for disclosing the details of Liu's and Wang's cases, saying that the apology to the two former judicial officials was far more meaningful that the compensation they had received, "because it means the prosecutors have acknowledged their mistake and shows that the court has fully enforced the State Compensation Law".

He said fully enforcing the law related to compensation is an effective way of alleviating the damage suffered by litigants and also demonstrates the credibility of the nation's judicial system.