A Chinese man who was wrongly detained and jailed for more than 12 years for rape and murder of a teenaged girl will receive 980,000 yuan ($161,000) in compensation, a court in China announced Tuesday.
The Intermediate People's Court in Pingdingshan city of Henan province announced that Li Huailiang was entitled to 780,000 yuan in compensation for 4,282 days of wrongful detention. He will also receive 200,000 yuan in compensation for psychological damage, according to the result of a state compensation proceeding, reports Xinhua.
From 2001 to 2006, Li was the prime suspect in the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Yexian county in Pingdingshan in August 2001.
During the period, he stood for trial seven times and was given three different verdicts. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, death, and death with reprieve, respectively. All three verdicts were overturned due to a lack of evidence.
However, Li was not released as he had to await a further trial.
In June 2012, China Comment magazine reported that Pingdingshan Intermediate People's Court signed a "death penalty guarantee" with the girl's parents in 2004. The guarantee promised to sentence Li to death so that the girl's mother would not appeal to higher authorities, even if the verdict was ultimately overturned by Henan Higher People's Court.
The intermediate court responded by saying that the agreement had no legal standing.
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Li was found not guilty and finally released April 25 this year.
In the claim, filed in the Intermediate People's Court, Li asked for 3.79 million yuan in compensation from the court for violation of his personal freedom, mental suffering, medical costs, loss of work, and legal fees.
The court dismissed Li's request for more compensation.