Chinese man in notorious 'case of the humiliated mother' finally free following public outcry

A convicted murderer who initially received a life sentence in China, but whose sentence was drastically reduced as a result of public outcry over the case, was finally set free from prison last week.

The case attracted widespread national attention and prompted tens of thousands of netizens to make online pleas of mercy for the man, Yu Huan. It also resulted in China's judicial organs introducing a set of guidelines aimed at institutionalising the legal premise for the plea of self-defence in court cases and proceedings.

Yu, from Liaocheng city in eastern Shandong province, was 22 years old when the incident occurred in 2016. In April that year, his mother, Su Yinxia, who ran a car-parts business at the time, borrowed money from illegal money lenders and failed to make payments on the high-interest loans. The money lenders then held mother and son hostage in Su's office.

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During almost 10 hours in captivity, they were prevented from leaving by a group of men who also verbally abused and slapped them, and muffled Yu's and Su's mouths with their shoes. One of the men was even said to have pulled down his trousers and "insulted Su using extreme methods".

Even though the police were summoned, they left without interfering, urging both sides to "work out their differences".

Yu Huan at his original court hearing. Photo: CCTV alt=Yu Huan at his original court hearing. Photo: CCTV

Pushed to the brink and attacked once again after the police left, Yu reportedly stabbed four of the money lenders with a fruit knife. One of them later died in hospital, and Yu was sentenced to life imprisonment for the incident that same month.

However, an outcry started after Chinese media outlets - most notably Southern Weekly, a Guangzhou-based newspaper - brought the issue to the attention of the public. Not only was the court's decision criticised, netizens took to the internet to plead for Yu in what became widely known as "the case of the humiliated mother".

They said Yu was merely trying to defend his mother's honour, while others called him "filial and dutiful" for lashing out at those who had tried to harm her.

Online responses to the case, from Weibo to website comments, included "Why is it a crime to protect one's mother?", "Yu was provoked into doing so" and "When the law cannot offer adequate protection, one has no choice but to take action".

Arguing that the police were ineffectual for not helping Yu and his mother, many said they admired his courage, with several adding that they would have done the same if they were in his shoes.

Others noted that since the attackers were illegal money lenders, they should be prosecuted for their illicit activities and exorbitant interest rates as well as the unlawful methods they used for getting borrowers to pay up.

Faced with threats, intimidation and the prospect of never being able to pay back ever-escalating amounts of money, some borrowers have been driven to bankruptcy and have even ended up taking their lives.

According to court records, Yu's mother was paying an interest rate equivalent to 120 per cent a year, far exceeding the national limit of 36 per cent.

Faced with a public outcry over the original life sentence, the Shandong Higher People's Court in 2017 overturned the lower court's 2016 decision to send Yu to prison for life, instead reducing his sentence to five years, for "acting beyond justifiable self-defence and causing grievous bodily harm with intent".

Last week, just five months short of completing the full five-year term, Yu was released from jail after the Liaocheng Intermediate People's Court stated that he had, among other things, "pleaded guilty, repented while serving his sentence, and abided by prison rules and regulations".

Upon his release, Yu said in a video posted on social media that he had reflected on his "mistake" during his time in prison. Quick to "thank the party and the government" for showing leniency in his case, he also said he wanted to put the incident behind him and get on with his life.

However, his detractors argued that the courts appeared to have been swayed by public opinion, arguing that violence could not be condoned and Yu had been let off too easily.

In September, China's judicial organs - the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security - jointly issued 22 guidelines on the application of self-defence during legal proceedings.

Citing Yu's case as one reason for issuing the guidelines, state media quoted Jiang Qibo, director of the research office of the Supreme People's Court, as saying that some cases may not at first appear to support a self-defence argument, prompting law enforcement officers "to rush to judgment".

"The defender's state of mind and the stress that he or she may be under when faced with an illegal infringement [also] need to be taken into consideration," Jiang said.

According to the guidelines, trespassing, the illegal restriction of personal freedom, and threatening someone's life, health and private or public properties are all grounds for self-defence.

Welcoming the guidelines, Chinese legal practitioners said that although the concept of "legitimate defence" - the notion that it is justifiable to harm someone in order to defend oneself - has long been mentioned in Chinese criminal law, it is rarely put into practice. They added that in the absence of judicial interpretation, many cases over the years had seldom been categorised as legitimate defence.

Zhao Hu, a lawyer with Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, said in the many intentional injury cases he had handled, defendants' claims of legitimate defence had seldom been accepted by the courts.

Pointing to China's Confucianism-infused culture of tolerance, Zhang Dongdong, a lawyer with Jingshi Law Firm in Beijing, said this had created a conservative legal environment that did not encourage or even support the concept of legitimate defence.

Rather, the legal environment appeared to be on the side of those who had died, often emphasising the populist belief that "the dead are always right", Zhang added.

But with the new judicial interpretations and guidelines issued partly as a result of Yu's case, lawyers and legal practitioners said they were hopeful the conservative legal culture might soon become a thing of the past.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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