China raises compensation for wrongful detention

BEIJING—China is raising the compensation for wrongful detention in correlation with increases in the average daily income of citizens last year, according to a Supreme People’s Court announcement on Wednesday.
The daily compensation was increased to 99.31 yuan (about 14.2 U.S. dollars), up 15.65 yuan year-on-year, according to the Supreme Court’s compensation committee. According to the Law on State Compensation, where the personal rights of a citizen were infringed upon, the amount for compensation per day should be calculated according to the average salary per day of a state employee in the preceding year. National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures showed the 2007 average salary of urban workers was 24,932 yuan (3,561 U.S. dollars) and the daily average was 99.31 yuan (14.15 U.S. dollars). Victims of wrongful detention or wrongful compulsory administrative measures to restrict personal freedom have the right to recover damages, according to the law. The most well-known recipient of compensation was She Xianglin who was wrongly jailed 11 years for a murder that never happened.

—Xinhua