[News]Chinese man released after 27 years in prison convicted of two murders he did not commit

[SougarLord]

Chinese authorities released Zhang Yuhuan, a man who has been incarcerated for nearly 27 years for a crime that - the Asian country's judicial system concluded - did not commit on Tuesday, making the former convict the victim of the longest erroneous sentence on record. in the Asian country. He was 25 years old and now 52. Married with two children, one has now met him in person, upon leaving the prison. His wife divorced and started a new family

The Higher People's Court of Southeast Jiangxi Province decided to release Zhang because his 1993 sentence for the alleged murder of two children was based on unclear facts and insufficient evidence, online publication Sixth Tone reported today.

 

Zhang, who was a carpenter before entering prison, returned to his home in Jiangxi capital Nanchang on Tuesday, after remaining behind bars for 9,778 days.

 

                           

 

I was a young man then and now I'm an old man, ”Zhang said to his wife before the sentence, according to local paper The Paper. However, I want to thank the authorities for restoring my innocence and doing justice.

Police arrested Zhang in October 1993 for the alleged murder of two children, and two years later, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to a suspended death sentence for two years. The sentenced appealed, an appeal that did not prosper until last Tuesday.

 

Ask for a million dollar compensation

According to Zhang's defense, the family will try to obtain compensation of 7 million yuan (1 million dollars or 849,153 euros), although he considered it a "very difficult" objective given "the lack of will of the judiciary to initiate surrender proceedings of accounts and hold the officials involved accountable. "

 

"Even if they pay me, I can't buy 27 years of youth," said Zhang, whose wife divorced him years ago and started a new family.

 

Of their two children, one visited him twice in prison over the age of 27, while the other saw him in person for the first time on Tuesday.

 

Chinese justice, which does not operate independently of the executive or legislative branches, has a defendant's sentencing rate of around 99%, according to 2013 data from the China Legal Yearbook.

Furthermore, according to international human rights organizations, during periods of detention awaiting trial, torture is customary in order to forcibly extract a confession that will later be presented to the courts.