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Celine Ge

Four Chinese men who spent up to 22 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murder have gone back to court – to launch lawsuits claiming more than 30 million yuan (HK$35 million) in compensation, mainland media reports.
Xu Jinlong – convicted of the crime in 1994 and given a stay of execution in Fujian province while on death row before his death sentence was commuted to life in jail – told news portal ThePaper.cn he had asked for 9.9 million yuan as compensation for his mental anguish and his time spent in prison.
Innocent man cleared of murder 21 years after he was convicted and jailed in China
“Time is worthless, “ Xu was quoted as saying in the report on Friday after his petition was handed in to Fujian Higher People’s Court in the city of Fuzhou.
The other three men in the case have also filed lawsuits each demanding government compensation ranging from 7 million yuan to 9.8 million yuan.
All four men had been locked up since 1994, when they were arrested by police after being identified as “criminal suspects”.
Chinese man, falsely jailed for 20 years for murder, ‘refused to confess under torture’
Xu, together with Cai Jinseng, Xu Yuseng and Zhang Meilai, were convicted in 1999 of robbing and murdering an elderly man in a village in the provincial city of Putian, despite all protesting their innocence.
In the following decade the four men and their families had continued to submit numerous appeals against their conviction, but Fujian court had dismissed them all and also refused to consider their petition in 2009 for the case to be re-examined.
Chinese man who served 20 years in jail for murder of girlfriend walks free after retrial
It was not until 2013 that the People’s Procuratorate of Fujian called for a retrial after concluding that facts in the case were unclear and that the original convictions had been based on insufficient evidence.
Last December, Fujian Higher People’s Court reopened the case and ruled this February that the four men were not guilty of the crime.
Chinese man wrongly jailed for murder spends first Lunar New Year Holiday since 1994 with family
Xu told ThePaper that he would also continue to sue the police officers involved in the original murder investigation, whom he accused of framing him of the crime.
“I also suffered assaults from them, simply because I did not want to make a false confession,” Xu was quoted as saying.
“Their misconduct has seriously violated my human rights and caused severe damage to my health.”


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Four Chinese men jailed for 22 years after wrongful murder convictions seek 30 million yuan in compensation

Xu Yuseng (right) is embraced by his mother in February after being freed when a court ruled he and three others convicted of murder in 1999 were all innocent. Photo: ThePaper.cn

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