State to compensate wrongly-convicted men 2.27 mln

Four men from Jiangxi Province will receive some 2.27 million yuan (about $337,436 US dollars) each from the state as compensation for their wrongful conviction and imprisonment 14 years ago, reported the People's Court Daily on Friday.

Cheng Lihe (second from the left), Fang Chunping (third from the left), Cheng Fagen (fourth form the left), three of the four men from Jiangxi Province who were sentenced to death in 2003 on charges of robbery, rape and homicide that happened in 2000. The four are expected to receive over 2.27 million yuan each from the state as compensation, citing a document issued by the High People's Court in Jiangxi Province on August 4, 2017. [File Photo: Wechat]

Citing a document issued by the High People's Court in Jiangxi Province on August 4, 2017, Huang Zhiqiang, Fang Chunping, Cheng Fagen and Cheng Lihe, four who were sentenced to death in 2003 on charges of robbery, rape and homicide in a case that occurred in 2000, have had their state compensation claims accepted.

Of the 2.27 million yuan that each will receive, 900,000 yuan (about $133,785 US dollars) will be for psychological trauma.

The four have been appealing their case since the four were sentenced to death in 2003. The death penalties were upheld in the four's first retrial in 2004 at the request of the provincial court.

In 2006, they received suspended death sentences, and all four later lodged an appeal against the ruling.

In 2015, the High People's Court in Jiangxi started a review of the case, and launched a retrial in April of last year.

On December 21, 2016, the four men's convictions for robbery, rape and murder were overturned, and the four filed for compensation from the state in June, 2017.