Chinese official retried for child rape

KUNMING - A court in Southwest China's Yunnan province on Tuesday retried a former county official sentenced to five years in prison for the rape of a four-year-old girl.

The People's Court in Daguan County did not hand down a verdict after the closed two-hour retrial, said Chen Weibiao, the girl's lawyer.

Rapist Guo Yuchi, a former official of Daguan, stood trial again following the "lenient" punishment he received. Guo was convicted at a trial in September of raping the girl after taking her to his apartment.

Chen said the plaintiff provided new evidence in court Tuesday, showing that Guo gagged the victim with paper to prevent her from crying when he committed the crime.

The previous verdict also rejected that the girl's family be compensated. But Guo agreed to pay the family 150,000 yuan ($24,615 dollars) in compensation in October, Chen said.

The Intermediate People's Court in Zhaotong City, a higher court than the county court, ordered the latter to retry the case on October 17, two days after prosecutors appealed against the ruling, saying the sentence was "clearly inappropriate."

Chen said Guo should be given a longer jail term, citing a new guideline on tougher penalties for public servants involved in sexual offenses against minors.

The guideline, jointly announced by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice on October 24, was released after a spate of sexual assaults on children committed by government employees and teachers.