Police chief 'apologizes' to labor camp mom

A Chinese mother, who was sent to a labor camp after petitioning for her daughter, a rape victim, received an apology from the police chief who sent her there during an appeal Tuesday at the high court in Hunan Province.

This was Tang Hui's second hearing after her previous claim for compensation was overruled in a lower court in April. Tang, 39, from Yongzhou, Hunan, was sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp for "illegally petitioning and disturbing social order" in August 2012.

The four-hour hearing at the provincial court Monday did not reach a decision, but the court said via its Sina Weibo that a decision would be given later.

"All those who have hurt my daughter deserve to be sentenced to death," Tang said in court when confronted with Jiang Jianxiang, chief of the Yongzhou police bureau, and Luo Gongjun, an official with the re-education commission.

Tang's daughter suffers from venereal disease after she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution for three months in 2006.

Jiang apologized in court, and said he was "sorry that they have not offered enough humanitarian care" to the family. However, Tang said she needs them to admit their decision on re-education is wrong and illegal, demanding compensation of 2,463 yuan ($402).

Prior to the hearing, the commission tried to settle by offering 100,000 yuan in exchange for Tang dropping the case.

Jiang added that the commission's decision of sending Tang to re-education was "inappropriate" instead of "illegal." 

"She threatened police by claiming she would comit suicide to meet her demands and made a scene when petitioning, which seriously disrupted social order," Jiang told the Global Times.

Huang Aihua, a member of the Yongzhou People's Congress Standing Committee, told the Global Times that Tang was to blame for not keeping her daughter safe and that her frequent illegal petitions have annoyed local authorities and earned her a bad reputation locally.

Tang started petitioning after alleging that local police had tried to protect her daughter's rapists.

The court in 2012 sentenced two suspects to death, four to life sentences and another to 15 years in prison for organizing or assisting in prostitution. The death sentences are being reviewed by the Supreme People's Court.

Tang's constant petitions for harsher punishments for the suspects eventually led to her being sent to the labor camp, from which she was released after nine days following a nationwide outcry.

"Given what I've been through and my failure at the first trial, I'm losing hope as time passes by," Tang said.

"Although an isolated case as such may not help much to overturn China's labor re-education system, if Tang loses, it can lead to an overwhelming distrust toward the credibility of the judicial system," said Tang's lawyer Xu Liping. 

"If the supreme court rejects the death sentences, I will keep petitioning," Tang said.