E. China: Netizen not guilty of slander

By Lan Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-01 09:53

A man who had been detained and stood trial on a charge of slander after he accused a local official in Shandong province of corruption in an online post has been released and compensated by the State.

Duan Lei, 28, from Caoxian county of Shandong province, published a message on websites blog.sina.com.cn, www.tianya.cn and tieba.baidu.com in February alleging that Guo Feng, Party chief of the county's Zhuangzhai town, took bribes and used his position to ensure that his family would win construction contracts, Pu Zhiqiang, one of Duan's defense attorneys with Beijing's Huayi Law Firm, told China Daily yesterday.

The message also alleged that Guo's son traded drugs, organized prostitution and kept mistresses while running a local KTV nightclub.

On Feb 25, Guo told the county public security bureau about the online post, and officials from the bureau detained Duan on the same day. On July 3, Duan was prosecuted for slander by the county procuratorate. The procurator office said the posts "have had a harmful influence and disturbed the social order". The trial began July 17 in county court.

However, the county procuratorial committee withdrew prosecution due to insufficient evidence on July 23, and the county public security bureau withdrew the case the next day, the attorney said.

Duan was released on the same day after having been detained for five months. He demanded State compensation on Aug 5 to the county procurator office.

The office decided to compensate Duan for being detained for 150 days without sufficient evidence, which infringed on his personal liberties.

Last week, Duan finally got 16,798 yuan ($2,500) in State compensation - 11,798 from the local procurator office and 5,000 from the county public security bureau.

"After nearly a half year of waiting, we finally saw the local procuratorate's decision to release my son," said Duan Guichun, the netizen's father.

"We hope the local government could give us more compensation for the family's material and spiritual loss during my son's detention," said the 48-year-old farmer, who was a migrant worker but could not go out to earn money after the incident.

Duan Lei graduated from Shandong University in 2006, and then worked in Jinan-based Shandong Huiyin Real Estate Company. Without Duan Lei's and Duan Guichun's income, the family borrowed 150,000 yuan from neighbors and friends to make the ends meet during the past five months, the father said.

The compensation was based on the State average daily pay of employees in 2008 of 112 yuan, said Li Huiqing, another attorney for Duan. The amount was in accordance to the State Compensation Law, Li said.

If it had been a civil case, Duan's family could have demanded more compensation. But they could only demand State compensation as the case was not a civil case and involved only government departments, he said.

"I welcome the local procuratorate's decision to release and compensate Duan Lei, which is in accordance with the law," said Pu Zhiqiang.

"The local public security bureau and the procuratorate paid the price for their infringement on a citizen's personal liberty," he said.

But there are still unsolved issues behind the case, he said.

Caoxian county authorities should investigate Zhuangzhai town official Guo Feng to find out whether Duan's accusation of corruption is true, Pu said. They also should investigate officials in charge of Duan's case at the county procuratorate and police bureau. Officials who violated the law should be punished, he said.

Duan is the latest example of netizens who were charged after they posted information against government officials online.

Last year, netizen Wu Baoquan from Inner Mongolia was sentenced to 2 years in prison for slandering the government.

Ju Chuanjiang contributed to the story