The People's Procuratorate of Gengma County believed that the behavior of the vendor had constituted the crime of forced transaction, but the behavior of the villagers had涉嫌 (suspected) constituted the crime of intentional injury.
Villagers said those who beat others were "eliminating harm for the people" and pleaded for them. The lawyer believed that using violence to stop violence could not solve the problem.
After this year's Spring Festival, a man surnamed Luo from another village was chased and beaten to death by villagers from two groups in Manglai Village, Mengyong Town, Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County.
In response, the villagers explained that Luo and two other people often came to Manglai Village, forcing villagers to transact with them through methods such as intimidation and threats. Unable to endure it anymore, the villagers collectively chased them out of the village, which they considered as "eliminating harm for the people"...
Last week, five main suspects, including Li Lao Da from Manglai Village, Mengyong Town, were prosecuted by the People's Procuratorate of Gengma County on charges of intentional injury to the People's Court of Gengma County. In the end, the court sentenced the five people, including Li Lao Da, to 10 years, 8 years, and 7.5 years in prison respectively.
Forced buying and selling caused panic
"We all require the release of Li Lao Da and others! They are eliminating harm for the people!" When the People's Procuratorate of Gengma County was handling the case of intentional injury (leading to death) of the five suspects including Li Lao Da, cadres and some villagers from the suspect's village and group said this to the procuratorate.
The entire case dates back to the end of last year.
According to the introduction, Manggang Group and Xinzhai Group under the Manglai Village Committee in Mengyong Town, Gengma County, are two remote and traffic-inconvenient Lahu ethnic minority villages. Since the second half of last year, three people including Zhou and Luo frequently visited these two groups in Manglai Village. According to investigations by the procuratorial organs, these three people forcibly bought at low prices three yellow cattle and two goats from four households in the Manggang Group, causing villagers an economic loss of about 9000 yuan. The behavior of Luo and the other three people made the villagers uneasy; men dared not return home at night, only locking women and children inside the house, but no one dared to report due to fear of retaliation.
"The behavior caused panic among the villagers and also aroused public indignation," according to a responsible person from the People's Procuratorate of Gengma County. At around 10 p.m. on January 30th this year, when Zhou, Luo, and the other three people arrived again at the Manggang Group, they were discovered by the already enraged villagers from the two groups. They spontaneously surrounded and chased after Zhou and others. During the chase and beating, Luo was injured by Li Lao Da and four others, and died of hemorrhagic shock on the way to the hospital.
Villagers sentenced for intentional injury
After the incident occurred, the public security bureau of Gengma County transferred the case involving the five people including Li Lao Da suspected of intentional injury to the procuratorate for review and prosecution. This led to the aforementioned scene: Villagers did not understand holding the five people including Li Lao Da criminally responsible because they were "eliminating harm for the people."
After reviewing, the People's Procuratorate of Gengma County believed that the behavior of the five people including Li Lao Da had涉嫌 (suspected) constituted the crime of intentional injury and should be prosecuted. Last week, the court held a hearing and subsequently made a judgment: sentencing Li Lao Da to 10 years in prison, another three people to 8 years in prison, and one person to 7.5 years in prison.
Additionally, the People's Procuratorate of Gengma County believed that the behavior of Chen and the other three people had constituted the crime of forced transaction. Since Luo in this case had already died, he would no longer be pursued, but the other two, Chen and Zhou, had not yet been investigated by the public security organs. The procuratorate decided to initiate the supervision procedure for filing cases and issued a "Notice Requiring Explanation of Reasons for Not Filing Cases" to the public security organs on March 16th this year. After receiving the notice, the public security organs filed the case on March 23rd. Currently, the public security organs are pursuing the fugitive Zhou.
Lawyer's opinion
Using violence to stop violence cannot solve problems
Lawyer Jin Lin from Yunnan Tongheng Law Firm said in an interview with our newspaper that first, the three people including Chen and Luo in this case had constituted the crime of forced transaction, infringing on others' legitimate interests while also violating and disrupting the order of the commodity trading market. An extremely important objective condition in this case is manifested in the use of violent or threatening means to force the buying and selling of goods, forcing others to provide services, or forcing others to accept services, with serious circumstances. For those with serious circumstances, they will be sentenced to less than three years in prison or detention, and fined.
However, the victims in this case did not report the crime but instead chose the method of "using violence to stop violence", leading to the death of Luo, who had already committed a crime, turning the originally law-abiding five villagers into criminal suspects.
He believes that from this case, we see the need to strengthen legal education work in rural areas, especially in remote areas, so that people can use legal weapons to protect their own rights when their rights are illegally infringed upon, rather than resorting to violence like in this case.
By reporter Liu Zixue