A 53-year-old Chinese man, sentenced to prison for the murder of two children, was exonerated and released on August 4. The man had spent more than 26 years in jail, reports the BBC.
The People's Supreme Court of Jiangxi Province (China) ruled that it did not have sufficient evidence to establish the guilt of the suspect, Zhang Yuhuan. The latter was imprisoned in October 1993 and sentenced two years later to the death penalty, then commuted to life imprisonment.
China. Zhang Yuhuan, after 27 years in prison, the man accused of killing two children was cleared and released. But his life was destroyed. “6 days and 6 nights of torture. They ordered a wolf dog to bite me ”…
These police practices are frightening. pic.twitter.com/x902hiQtn3
Confessions made under torture
The verdict was suspended after Zhang Yuhuan's appeal and thanks to a lack of consistency put forward by the court. A new trial had been ordered, which took place in November 2001. Chinese judges then confirmed the sentence. For years, the convict and his relatives have repeatedly claimed that the Chinese was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
They have multiplied the letters and actions demanding his release. In March 2019, the courts agreed to re-examine the case, an approach which ultimately allowed Zhang Yuhuan to be exonerated. The former detainee can now claim compensation for the 27 years spent in prison for a crime he did not commit.
It is the longest sentence ever carried out by a prisoner then exonerated by the Chinese justice, specifies the Global Times . The suspect lived in the same neighborhood as the two little boys killed, found strangled. He had been convicted of intentional killings after confessions made under threat and torture. No lawyer defended him in the first trial.
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