US$182,000 for man cleared of double murder
Print Edition
A prisoner on death-row who was later declared innocent is to receive state compensation of almost 1.14 million yuan (US$182,000).
Nian Bin, 39, a former food stall owner, yesterday received a letter detailing the payments from the same court in Fuzhou which had sentenced him to death in February 2008 for the murder of two children.
The amount to be paid includes compensation for depriving him of his freedom and for mental suffering, the court in southeast China’s Fujian Province said.
Nian will receive almost 590,000 yuan for the loss of freedom and 550,000 yuan for his mental suffering, according to a report on China Central Television.
Nian, who was freed in August last year, had appealed for 15 million yuan in compensation that would include the cost of medical treatment for mental and physical conditions that included insomnia, a heart disorder and prostate and spinal problems.
He also asked the court to publish an apology in major Chinese newspapers including the People’s Daily and the Oriental Morning Post as well as major news portals sina.com and xinhuanet.com.cn.
The case dates back to July 2006, when Nian rented an apartment in Aoqian Village of Fujian’s Pingtan County from Chen Yanjiao to open a grocery store. His next-door neighbor Ding Yunxia was also a store owner.
On July 27, six people from Chen and Ding’s families suffered food poisoning, and Ding’s two children — 10-year-old Yu Pan and 8-year-old Yu Han — died.
Traces of rat poison were said to have been found in the children’s bodies, and Nian was detained several days later after police said traces of the poison had been found at his home.
But he said he was tortured into confessing during police interrogations and had pursued his appeals for years.
He was convicted several times and spent eight years in prison before being acquitted.
Nian had told prosecutors that two officers had concealed evidence that would have pointed to his innocence and faked reports about the poison to make him appear guilty.
He told the Fujian Provincial Procuratorate that You Jingfei and Weng Qifeng, then officers at the Pingtan County Public Security Bureau, had threatened to arrest his wife.
A higher court which overturned the guilty verdict said the prosecution had presented conflicting evidence, there was a lack of proof the victims had died from rat poison and there had been a failure to trace the origin of the poison.
In an earlier case, a teenager named Huugjilt from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was found guilty of rape and murder on April 9, 1996, and executed two months later.
Last December, after another man’s confession prompted an investigation, the regional higher people’s court ruled him innocent.
China recently ordered police to film and record all interrogations in criminal cases to ensure that law enforcement is carried out fairly and that suspects’ rights are protected.
The requirement was approved by the Ministry of Public Security.
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