"Nail household" gets probation for stabbing the forced demolisher, and the lenient sentence gets netizens' praise

Liaoning Man Stabs to Death a Person Forcibly Demolishing His House, Gets Probation

The lenient verdict has been highly praised by netizens. A lawyer said that it could become a typical case of legal protection of private rights of citizens.

A 3-year fixed-term imprisonment, with a 5-year probation - a recent verdict by the Intermediate People's Court of Benxi City, Liaoning Province, let Zhang Jian walk out of the Benxi Detention Center where he had stayed for more than 400 days and regained personal freedom.

Under the background that his house was forcibly demolished many times by unwelcome visitors, when he was beaten up by a group of unidentified people intruding into his house and his family members were also threatened, Zhang Jian pulled out a fruit knife... In the eyes of some legal circles, Zhang Jian committed homicide but did not get death sentence, which was the first verdict in the new era of demolition disputes in China. The case sent out positive signals to the society and could become a typical case of Chinese law protecting private rights of citizens. And on the Internet, more than 90% of netizens expressed their approval of the verdict.

The house was smashed many times

Zhang Jian rushed out of the door and ran into the woods of Pingding Mountain. He did not know at that time whether he killed someone or not. He could not judge which part of the body he stabbed. He only remembered that face and it was about his age. It was May 14, 2008 in the morning. One month later, Zhang Jian turned himself in.

Zhang Jian is a resident of Group 22, Changqing Community, Dongxing Subdistrict Office, Ming District, Benxi City, 28 years old, unemployed. His community is the last large-scale shanty town in the urban area of Benxi. In 2005, the Benxi municipal government listed the Changqing Community as the construction land for the treatment of coal mining subsidence areas in the city and required residents to vacate their houses within a time limit. This shanty town renovation project was carried out in the mode of commercial development: Benxi Huaxia Real Estate Development Company obtained the development right and planned to build a luxury villa complex named "Shanshui Renjia". But 15 households of Changqing Community residents including Zhang Jian's became "nail households".

From 2007 to 2008, employees of Huaxia Company brought trouble to these "nail households" many times - beating people, smashing things, forcibly demolishing houses. Zhang Jian's stab happened under the circumstance that his family was surrounded by a group of unwelcome visitors.

Killing forcible demolishers in anger

On March 9 this year, the People's Procuratorate of Benxi City filed a public prosecution against Zhang Jian.

The indictment stated that: "At around 9 o'clock on May 14, 2008, the defendant Zhang Jian at his home in Changqing Community, Tianmen Road, Ming District, Benxi City, got into an argument with Wang Weichen, Zhou Mengcai, Zhao Jun, Jiao Hongwei, Wang Wei and others who were staff members of Benxi Huaxia Group coming to resolve demolition matters. Zhang Jian was beaten after being held down by the other party, so he picked up a sharp knife under the bed and stabbed Zhao Jun's buttocks, chest, abdomen and other parts several times and then fled from the scene. Zhao Jun died, and Wang Weichen subsequently called in an excavator to completely demolish Zhang's house."

At the end of March, the Intermediate People's Court of Benxi City held a trial for this case. Zhang's agent lawyer Wang Ling believed that Zhang Jian's stabbing happened under the situation of violent infringement and might continue to face violent infringement. He took the self-help remedy action to protect private property from destruction and himself and his family from personal injury, which belonged to the scope of justifiable defense and should be exempted from criminal punishment. Facing the lawyer's defense, the prosecutor's opinion that the "Shanshui Renjia" project was a key project, a "people-benefiting" project, requiring the persons to be demolished not to "unreasonably price", caused a chorus of boos in the audience seats. The court did not make a verdict on the spot. On September 4, the court made a verdict, finding Zhang Jian guilty of intentional injury and sentencing him to 3 years of fixed-term imprisonment with a 5-year probation. According to China Youth Daily