Case No 6 Chen Weiguo, Liu Qiande’s application for state compensation

1. Background

Yang Yongping, former chairman of a company in Tonglu county, Zhejiang province, clashed with Hu Qunli and his companions while driving on Oct 1, 2010. The two sides got into a physical altercation. Yang called his employees Ye Linhua, Chen Weiguo and Liu Qiande to join the fight. Hu and his companions were identified as suffering minor and slight injuries. Chen Weiguo and Liu Qiande were summoned to the public security bureau for involvement in the fight the next day. They were held in criminal detention on Oct 3. After further investigation by the public security bureau, the criminal compulsory measures on Chen and Liu were removed and the criminal prosecution was withdrawn due to lack of evidence.

2. Ruling

The Compensation Committee of Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court heard the case and held that Chen Weiguo and Liu Qiande’s behaviors were not so serious as the crimes of picking quarrels and provoking troubles, and that the handling of Tonglu county’s public security bureau violated the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China. The committee reversed earlier decisions made by the public security bureaus of Tonglu county and Hangzhou city, and found that the bureau should fulfill its responsibility by compensating Chen for infringing his personal liberty for four days.

3. Significance

This is a state compensation case that involves the criteria of reviewing an illegal criminal detention. A compensation committee of a people’s court should not only review whether the procedures used by the responsible office in carrying out compulsory measures on suspects were legal, but also review whether it was legal to take the compulsory measures on the suspects in the first place. Under the Criminal Procedure Law, the public security organ may first detain a major suspect or an active criminal if he is identified as having committed a crime by a victim or by an eyewitness. In this case, the compensation committee found that Chen Weiguo and Liu Qiande were not major suspects or active criminals and that the public security bureau’s decision to detain them was based on insufficient evidence. Consequently, the decision was illegal and the victims have the right to obtain state compensation.