Jail term for abuse case in China doesn’t go far enough, critics say
- A court has sentenced Mou Linhan, 26, to more than three years in prison for abuse that led his girlfriend to take her own life
- Legal expert says it’s a significant ruling for domestic violence cases but women’s rights advocate calls it ‘hardly satisfactory’
The case of a 26-year-old man who was jailed over the abuse and eventual suicide of his girlfriend in Beijing has stirred debate over whether Chinese law goes far enough to protect against domestic violence.
Mou Linhan was sentenced on June 15 to three years and two months in prison for abusing his girlfriend, identified only by her surname Chen.
The Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing also ordered Mou to pay 730,000 yuan (US$101,700) in compensation to the victim’s mother.
The case is being seen by some as a step forward in the protection of women in China. But critics say the extent of the mental torture that Chen endured was not fully taken into account in the verdict.
According to the court’s judgment, Mou and Chen were both students at Peking University in Beijing and had lived together between September 2018 and October 2019. Chen took poison in a bid to end her life on October 9, 2019. She never recovered and died on April 11 the following year.
The court accepted that Chen had endured verbal abuse from Mou over a long period and that the abusive treatment had resulted in Chen’s mental health deteriorating and caused her to take her own life.
“There is a criminal law causal link with the harmful consequences of the victim’s death by suicide,” the court said in the judgment.