A man whose wife was found with her neck tied in China last year, sparking outrage in the country, has been sentenced to nine years in prison, a court said on Friday.
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The images of this mother in great mental distress chained in a barn in Jiangsu province (east) caused great emotion in China in January 2022 after being published online. The couple had eight children.
The husband was arrested along with several other people accused of human trafficking.
Dong Zhimin was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for “abuse,” the Intermediate People’s Court in Xuzhou, a city about 100 kilometers from Shanghai, said on Friday.
In addition, during this trial in the first instance he will receive an additional three years for “confiscation” or a total of nine years in prison.
“Only nine years in prison for ruining someone’s life,” said one surfer on the Weibo social network, in line with many of the comments.
“It’s far from enough, but it’s proof that the internet is useful. Without all that attention, this case would have been covered up,” said another, referring to the outrage on social media.
Sold multiple times
Authorities initially denied that the case was linked to human trafficking, a fairly common phenomenon in rural China, where women marry relatively rarely.
Five people on trial in the case were also sentenced to between 8 and 13 years in prison.
According to authorities, the woman had been abducted from her village in Yunnan (southwest), some 2,000 km from where she was discovered.
It was then sold several times, including once in 1998, for 5,000 yuan (665 euros at the current price).
The one-child policy, enforced in China for nearly 40 years until 2016, created a shortage of women due to a traditional preference for male children.
This imbalance has led to large numbers of kidnappings of young women who have been forced into marriage in villages with an abundance of men.