From October 1st, 2006 to December 30th, 2006, the ten-year old daughter of Ms. Tang Hui was kidnapped in Yongzhou, Hunan by a criminal gang and kept in sexual slavery. During that time, she was forced into prostitution and "served" hundreds of "customers". In 2007, the Appeals Court of Yongzhou sentenced suspects Zhou Junhui, Qin Xing, Chen Gang, Liu Run, Jiang Junjun and Lan Xiaoqiang etc. for rape and prostitution to punishments ranging from death, life sentence to 15-year jail sentences, plus 90,000 yuan compensation. The High Court of Hunan returned the case to the Petitions Court for retrial due to insufficient evidence. Recently Tang received court notice that the retrial would begin its third session on November 24th. Previously, the case had two sessions in 2008 and 2009. The time lapse between these sessions had been unprecedented.
Tang Hui expressed her despair over the outcome of the Petitions Court trial. She was afraid of the numbers and power of the defendants and afraid of their retaliation. Further, in her opinion, for the trial to be dragged out so long, the defendants in the case must have had backing among the high officials. A retrial most likely would mean that the sentences would significantly lessen. During the retrial period, Tang appealed the government for justice in Beijing. She was interviewed by the media and arrested three times. One of the arrests was on a trumped up charge by the local police department that she had posted "defamatory" signs in the street. Tang hopes urgently that media members would participate in the November 24th trial to ensure its fairness. Because of the duration of the trial, Tang's family never saw a cent of the 90,000 yuan compensation. She hopes that the trial would conclude quickly so she could use the money to continue her daughter's treatment which had exhausted her family resources. She plans to move to another locale once the trial is over.
The Facts of the Case:
The 2006 crime was a case of police-criminal collaboration. Tang's daughter was gang-raped and forced into prostitution. Afterwards, threats from both the suspects and police forced the victim's family into hiding, poverty and desperation.
Tang Hui's daughter was then a fifth-grade student at 10 years of age. Four adult criminals used threats and violence to rape her from five to nine o'clock that night. They also used severe psychological torture on the victim, who vomited and passed out several times during her ordeal.
At nine that night, Qin Jun, the leader of the four directed that the victim should be brought to Liuqing Lounge, a nightclub. Qin Jun, Chen Gang, Qin Xing etc. with the threat of violence raped the victim into prostitution three times that night in the nightclub and a hotel nearby.
Afterwards, the criminal gang used beatings and threats, held the victim multiple times in the next three months. receiving hundreds of "customers" in dozens of locations in various restaurants and hotels in Yongzhou. Hundreds of Yongzhou men were implicated in the crime, including 11 policemen who were suspected of rape.
Before the time of the case, this criminal gang organized tens of girls and young women ranging from 10 to 17 years of age in a sexual slavery racket for over a year with blatant disregard of the law. Particularly egregiously, after the Tang case came to light, local police looked the other way. The same gang continued its crimes in its old haunts, forcing new victims into sexual slavery with no regard to public outrage.
On December 30, 2006, Tang Hui and her daughter sought help from Lingling District Detective Captain Yang Junxiang but were ignored. The next morning, they appealed to the Assistant Director of the local police department He Pin and were rebuffed again. The reason was easy to discern for such flagrant dereliction of duty by the local police. Lingling District Police Commissar Qin Aiqun was the brother of two of the heads of the criminal organization, Qin Xing and Qing Jun. Qin Xing's aunt was also the assistant prosecutor in the local Prosecutor's Office. Four of the gang rape suspects, Qin Min, Liu Run, Lan Xiaoqiang, and Jiang Junjun were either relatives or friends of Commissar Qin Aiqun. Assistant Police Director He Pin was the son-in-law of the commissar. He Pin, in addition, was the blood brother and neighbor of the top leader of the criminal gang Chen Gang.
It was only five days later, on January 4th, 2007, that the local Lingling District police department reluctantly registered Tang Hui's complaint. Two detectives assigned to the case, Yang Junxiang and Police Instructor Zhang Chaocheng told Tang from the onset, "It's only going to be a decency case."
Afterwards, the victim's parents repeatedly appealed to the Lingling District police department to inquire about the progress of the investigation. Each time the policemen rolled their eyes and told them off. The investigation did not start for twenty days. After several months of cursory "investigation", only Qin Xing was arrested on the farcically light charge of "Accessory to Prostitution". Suspects Zhou Junhui, Chen Gang, Liu Run, Lan Xiaoqiang, Jiang Junjun etc. were completely excluded in the initial investigation. After Qin Xing's arrest, local policemen notified criminal gang members and assisted them in hide and destroying evidence. Policeman Wei Xiaohui was a direct conduit of information from Detective He Pin to the suspects. As a result, massive numbers of suspects in the case went into hiding. Seven, including Qin Jun, Qin Bin, Liu Hongxia, Wei Jian, Wei Jie, Li Qianhai and Wei Yong, were still at large at time of writing.
In desperation, Tang Hui traveled to Beijing to seek help in March, 2008. Local policemen Chen Jianwei chased the family to the capital, held and beat them in the Beijing Yongzhou House and brought them back to Yongzhou in custody. The family was held in Lingling District with limited freedom. As late as June 7th, 2010, Tang Hui was secretly arrested by the Lingling District police for "Contacting media without prior authorization". After 48 hours of secret holding, she was officially sentenced by the police for "disturbance of public peace" in the Lingling holding facility.
Yongzhou Police Department eventually took over the case from its Lingling District branch as a result of Tang Hui's three-year appeal that brought authorization from the National Petitions Bureau and Hunan Police Commissioner Tan Hepin. Even armed with "the emperor's ring", the special task force of Yongzhou Police could only uncover a part of the conspiracy through a year of investigations fraught with difficulties and obstruction of local politics. After the conclusion of the Yongzhou Police's undercover investigation, Yongzhou Petitions Court sentenced two of the suspects to death, two to life sentences and two more to 15-year sentences.
The sentencing of the six suspects was far from revealing the full justice of the case. The policemen who participated in the sexual slavery ring were untouched. Police detectives who were blatantly derelict in their duty work as before under the ample protection of local political power. Yongzhou government to save "face" declined to investigate any wider. Seven suspects were still at large. Many victims of the criminal gang disappeared without a trace.
Prospects for the retrial remains unclear. After the original trial, Yongzhou Prosecutor's Office protested at the 15-year sentences of Lan Xiaoqiang and Jiang Junjun as "abnormally light". The High Court agreed with the protest. However due to an obscure later legal maneuver between the Prosecutor's Office and the Petitions Court, any prospect of heavier punishment was quashed, while possibilities for much lighter sentences remained. For this the victim's parents protested for ten days in the office of the first judge Zhang Xiaolong of the Petitions Court, to no avail.
