Court issues compensation case guidance

China's Supreme People's Court on Monday for the first time released details of 10 cases in which the State had awarded compensation for wrongful convictions, aiming to give lower-level courts guidance.

"These references provide examples of court cases that are classic and can be used as a guide when it comes to deciding State compensation," said a notice published on its website. The supreme court will set up an audit system to oversee compensation issues.

The notice came one day after two men who were wrongfully jailed for almost a decade in Zhejiang Province were each awarded over 1.1 million yuan ($179,249) in State compensation, although the amount was 5 million yuan less than the demanded figure.

However, Zhang Gaoping, one of the wronged men, said he refused to take the money.

Zhang Gaoping and his nephew, Zhang Hui, were charged with raping and killing a 17-year-old woman to whom they gave a ride on their way to Shanghai in 2003.

They dropped the woman off in Hangzhou and continued on their way. After the girl's naked body was discovered later, the pair were detained, as they were the last known people to have seen the girl alive.

The gap in the compensation amount has sparked a huge discussion on how to calculate State compensation. Hu Jinguang, a professor at the Renmin University of China Law School, told the Global Times that the system should take the loss of obtainable profits into consideration.

"Releasing 10 classic cases is not a breakthrough, there is still much room to improve the system," Hu said, adding that the main problem is it only calculates direct loss. "If Zhang has evidence to prove he could have earned 30,000 yuan a month back then, then it should be compensated for."

Since 1994, China has established a State compensation system to compensate those whose lawful rights and interests are damaged by the State organs in the course of enforcing their power in accordance with the law.

The law has been amended eight times over the years. The compensation has just been increased to 182 yuan a day from 17.16 yuan in 1995, a standard which is based on the increase in the average salary of State employees.

Meanwhile, it added compensation for psychological injury in a recent amendment, which is seen as a big step forward. However, Jiang Min'an, law professor of Peking University, said that China still lacks a standard to calculate compensation for psychological injury.

"Without a standard, some people might get excessive compensation because of intensive media reports," Jiang said.

In 2011, 6,786 cases concerning administrative compensation, criminal compensation and non-criminal judicial compensation were concluded by courts at all levels, according to a white paper by the State Council Information Office.