JUSTICE COMING TO CHINA AT LAST

A Chinese man is suing a regional court for sentencing him to death and putting him in jail for nearly 600 days for a murder he says he was tortured into confessing. The case is the latest in a series of high-profile wrongful arrests that have surfaced in China and raised hard questions about police methods and local courts' apparently arbitrary use of the death penalty.

Zhou Rukou, 51, filed a suit against the Intermediate People's Court and the prosecutor's office of Yancheng city in eastern Jiangsu province, after the murder and robbery charges that kept him in jail for 567 days were dropped in April.

Mr Zou was arrested in April 2002 on suspicion of robbing and murdering an 84-year-old man from his village. At the time of the arrest, police said a bruise on Mr Zhou's neck was proof of a struggle between the two, his lawyer was quoted as saying. Police were not able to produce a weapon or other evidence of the crime.
Yet a local court sentenced Mr Zhou to death in September 2002. That ruling was overturned at a 2003 retrial by a provincial court for lack of evidence. Mr Zhou was released on bail in November that year and has since said he was tortured by 12 policemen into confessing to the crimes.

Report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)