Chinese man who served 11 years of life term for wrongful conviction gets record compensation
BEIJING, China - A Chinese man who served 11 years of a life sentence for a wrongful conviction of check fraud was awarded a record state compensation of 825,000 yuan ($131,000) this week.
Guangdong's provincial supreme court granted the compensation to 39-year-old Huang Liyi for deprivation of personal freedom as well as psychological and emotional distress, the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.
Huang's lawyer, Yang Xuelin, said in a blog that Huang received the money on Monday.
Huang was arrested in 1999 for check fraud and was sentenced the next year to life in prison. He was acquitted in 2010 on the ground of insufficient evidence and released from jail.
The monetary compensation for the loss of personal freedom was calculated on the basis of 162.65 yuan ($26) per day, the average daily wage for urban workers from the non-private sector, Southern Metropolis Daily said.
Wrongful convictions are common in China's legal system, which is notorious for using torture to extort confession from suspects. In two high-profile murder cases, the men convicted of the crime were found innocent after their victims turned out to be alive.
