2015-05-08
A woman reacts after failing to protect her home from demolition in Guangzhou, March 21, 2012.
AFP
Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu on Friday handed down an eight-year prison term to a retired People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier for attacking members of a demolition gang who came to raze his home.
Fan Mugen was found guilty of “intentional wounding” by the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court following his trial in early February.
He was sentenced during a brief hearing on Friday morning local time, his lawyer said.
“Fan Mugen was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and order to pay civil compensation,” one member of Fan’s defense team, Wang Yu, told RFA.
“I think this is an illegal verdict,” she added.
Fan’s case is politically sensitive, as it comes amid growing public anger over the use of violent forced evictions, often with no warning or due process, by local governments to reclaim land for lucrative redevelopment or speculation.
Retired PLA soldier Fan allegedly attacked two members of a demolition gang that came to evict his family from their home on Dec. 3, 2013, and who he said beat up his wife. The two men later died.
In addition to the jail term, the court also fined Fan 500,000 yuan (U.S. $80,000).
Fan’s defense attorneys, however, were barred from the court during the sentencing hearing.
“They wouldn’t have let us in today, because we had previously staged a protest,” one of the defense lawyers, Lu Zhoubin, told RFA on Friday. “But we decided not to try to attend, as a form of protest.”
“The family all went in, including Fan Mugen’s son, Fan Yonghai,” Lu said. “The family has already received the judgment document, which states that he has received an eight-year prison sentence.”
Fan’s defense lawyers walked out after the first day of his trial on Feb. 4 in protest at the court’s refusal to admit a crucial piece of evidence, and its admission of evidence the defense said was questionable.
Legal procedure violations
Fan’s trial had been plagued with violations of legal procedure from the start, with the court ignoring the fact that video evidence shown by the prosecution had been heavily edited, lawyers said at the time.
Fan’s son rejected the verdict and the sentence, saying Fan was severely provoked.
“Of course, we don’t accept it,” Fan Yonghai told RFA. “It’s not as if we went and invaded [their domain] and tried to kill them.”
“They came looking for us, but then wouldn’t take responsibility, leaving us to bear the consequences,” he said. “It’s entirely reasonable to argue that my father was acting to defend [his family].”
