LI HUAWEI WAS at his post in a cement factory in the northeast city of Yingkou when he heard shocking news - the woman he had married just seven months before had been murdered. He rushed back to their modest apartment near the plant and saw his wife Xing Wei, who was six months pregnant, sprawled across the floor and covered with stab wounds to the head, neck, chest and stomach.
That was the afternoon of October 29, 1986. Two months later, Mr Li, who was then 23, was arrested. He was later sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, despite his repeated protests of innocence.
Although the death sentence was not carried out, he has been in prison ever since.
In July last year, police arrested a man named Jiang Hai who admitted killing Xing and carrying out several other murders. Although this should finally result in Mr Li being released, he will remain in prison until a court pronounces Jiang guilty.
'You cannot say China has no law,' said Mr Li's lawyer, Ma Changsheng. 'But, at present, power is greater than the law. In many places, power has replaced the law.'
On March 5, Human Rights in China issued a damning report on implementation of the country's Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) four years after it was passed.
