Wrongfully detained man gets compensation of around 5 million yuan

Zhang Yuhuan, a man from Jiangxi province who had his name cleared in August after 27 years of wrongful detention, received a state compensation of more than 4.96 million yuan ($738,754) on Friday from a local court.

The compensation decision made by the Jiangxi High People's Court includes about 3.39 million yuan for Zhang's wrongful detention and 1.57 million yuan for Zhang's mental anguish, said Luo Jinshou, Zhang's lawyer.

It was the highest compensation given to an acquitted person on record in the country, according to ThePaper, a Shanghai-based online news portal.

The court said in a statement released on its official WeChat account that the decision was made after fully negotiated with Zhang and his lawyer as well as soliciting their opinions.

It added the court and Zhang reached the compensation agreement on Oct 12 after Zhang submitted his state compensation application on Sept 2.

On Aug 4, the high court overturned the original ruling in which Zhang was given a suspended death sentence for intentional homicide and found not guilty because the chain of evidence in his case was incomplete and not strong enough to prove his conviction.

Zhang was freed that day and came back home.

Zhang, a villager from Jinxian county in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, was indentified as a suspect when the bodies of two boys were discovered in a reservoir in the village in 1993.

In January 1995, he was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for the crime of intentional homicide by the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court, which means his sentence would be reduced to life imprisonment if he did not commit new offenses during the two-year period.

Zhang was unhappy with the ruling and appealed to a high court.

Two months later, the high court sent back the case to the lower court, demanding it retry the case for insufficient evidence. But the retrial was not opened until November 2001, and the intermediate court upheld the original ruling.

Zhang appealed again, but this time his appeal was rejected by the high court.

After frequent appeals from Zhang and his family members, the high court reheard the case on July 9.

Zhang applied for state compensation of about 22.34 million yuan after being acquitted.

Zhang Yuhuan, a man from Jiangxi province who had his name cleared in August after 27 years of wrongful detention, received a state compensation of more than 4.96 million yuan ($738,754) on Friday from a local court.