Society

Villagers plead leniency for boy who 'killed' a man

By Wang Jingqiong and Qiu Bo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-18 07:08

Villagers in Xiaowa village of Fushun city, Liaoning province, display their petition scroll asking for leniency for 16-year-old Zhao Mingyang, who fatally stabbed a man in a relocation dispute.[Provided by Beijing Times]

BEIJING - More than 900 villagers in Northeast China's Liaoning province have signed a letter begging for leniency for a 16-year-old boy who has been charged with killing a man who tried to stop villagers' appeals to higher authorities over home relocation disputes.

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Zhao Mingyang, from Xiaowa village of Fushun city, who has been accused in the fatal stabbing of 33-year-old Li Xiaolong on Oct 9, 2009, is now waiting for trial, Beijing Times reported on Thursday.

On Oct 9 last year, Zhao joined 200 other villagers traveling to the Dashi town government, as they believed two officials of their village, the Party secretary Zang Yuquan and a director surnamed Liu, had cheated them and illegally embezzled 6.96 million yuan ($1.02 million).

Villagers believed the embezzled money was part of the compensation money that should have been paid to the villagers, whose land was supposed to be reshaped into a new economy development zone.

But villagers had a fight with a group of more than 10 armed people sent by Zang, who wanted to stop villagers from petitioning, the report said.

During the fight, Zhao stabbed Li three times, causing his death, according to the local police.

Zang later was detained and is awaiting trial now, while Liu has probably been released, the report quoted villagers as saying.

Xiaowa village has a population of about 1,500 people, and has over 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of arable land. The local government planned in 2009 to take over the land and develop the region into an industrial zone.

Prior to this incident, rumors in Xiaowa village said that Zang and Liu took advantage of the villagers and benefited themselves by forging business contracts.

"A signal was that both of them changed their cars to super fancy ones," a villager was quoted as saying.

Zhao Xianjun, the suspect's uncle, said he and 30 villager representatives had been forced by village officials on Oct 1, 2009 to sign an agreement to help them steal the compensation money.

Zhao Xianjun and Zhao Junhua, the suspect's father, later called other villagers and organized them to appeal to a higher government.

Zhao Mingyang, the boy, is now awaiting trial with charges of intentional injuring others. His fellow villagers insisted the boy committed the crime for the whole village, and the court should show mercy toward him.

The police statement said that Li Xiaolong was one of the most ferocious who attacked the villagers.

However, Li's mother insisted her son was not a villain and that he had no criminal record before the incident.

After Zhao's case, another death caused by conflicts over compensation occurred in a neighboring village in April, when a local resident stabbed a relocation official to death after his parents were seized for refusing to be relocated.