Jilin court upholds sentence of man who build unauthorized bridge

A court in Jilin province on Monday upheld the original sentence of a man who built an unauthorized bridge and claimed that it was to give residents easier access to a nearby city as he was found to have damaged another path to cross the river and forced people to pay up.

In 2014, Huang Deyi and his family started to build a bridge on the Tao'er River in Zhenlin village, Taonan city. Due to the construction was unauthorized, the local water resources department had asked Huang to dismantle the bridge several times. Following a dispute with the department in 2018, Huang and several family members were detained for causing trouble the following February, according to Taonan Water Conservancy Bureau.

In December 2019, Huang was sentenced to two years in prison for causing trouble with a two-year reprieve by the Taonan People's Court while 17 of his family members received prison terms and probation. In its verdict, the court stated that the rulings were in response to the family forcing people to pay to use the bridge.

Huang later appealed to the Baicheng Intermediate People's Court. The court announced on Monday that it has decided to uphold the sentences of Huang and He Shuchun, a key accomplice who received the sentence of one year in prison with a reprieve. But it has exempted five people from criminal punishment and declared the innocence of 11 others because there has been an error in the application of the law.

The case sparked controversy on social media for the severity of the sentence after Huang said they had decided to charge a toll to simply cover the cost of building the bridge, which was to help people significantly cut travel time between the village and Baicheng, a popular city that has jurisdiction over Taonan.

However the Baicheng Intermediate People's Court said that in order to make more money, Huang, He and another person sabotaged the path on the river that people normally took to get across when the water was shallow, so people had no choice but to use the fixed bridge that the family had built. The family then takes turns to stay at both ends of the bridge to collect toll fees.

Every time after being fined by the local water resources department, Huang either chose to ignore the order to dismantle the bridge or only removed the bridge decks and then soon put them back again.

Also, the family had previously charged people for using a floating bridge that they built illegally from 2005 to 2014.

The court added that Huang's sentence is appropriate because he forced people to use the bridge for financial gains, which has caused many disputes. Also, he clearly knows that it's illegal to build the bridge but still chooses to ignore the law.