Li Siqiang, an intellectually disabled man who was wrongly identified as a robber in 2007 and sentenced to prison, began an eight-year road of appeals after his brother Li Kuixing was convinced of his brother's innocence. In 2024, the Xiangqiao District People's Court of Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province, retried Li Siqiang's case and finally acquitted him. However, Li Kuixing was already suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer when he learned of the result, but he said that in addition to asking for compensation, he also demanded that the people who handled the wrong case be held accountable, and hoped to find the relevant personnel of the Nanjing police who mistakenly arrested Li Siqiang.
Cause of the incident:
In 2007, Li Siqiang, who was intellectually disabled, was mistakenly arrested by the police for possessing the identity card of the fugitive Liu Xiwen, and was later sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison by the Longhu District People's Court in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, for robbery.
Li Siqiang is an intellectually disabled person, and it is impossible for him to commit a crime. Two years later, prison guards discovered that Li Siqiang's identity was wrong, and the case was remanded for retrial. After learning of Li Siqiang's true identity, the Shantou Municipal People's Court did not change the verdict in the case.
The real fugitive was at large in Lixin, Anhui Province, and when the local police caught Liu Xiwen, he truthfully confessed his crime. From this point, it can be proved that Li Siqiang is not a criminal, he was wronged. On February 2, 2023, the Longhu District People's Court of Shantou City, Guangdong Province, still did not change the verdict and sentenced Li Siqiang to 10 years in prison again.
Source: Beijing News
In January 2024, the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court made a retrial decision to allow the Xiangqiao District People's Court of Chaozhou City to hear the case. On April 19, the Xiangqiao District People's Court held a retrial and announced that Li Siqiang was acquitted.
Although the verdict was changed to not guilty, Li Siqiang died of illness in September 2016, just after he was released from prison. And his brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Is belated justice still justice?
The Longhu District People's Court of Shantou City, Guangdong Province, made three verdicts of guilt when the facts were unclear and all the evidence showed that Li Siqiang was not a criminal. Their three misconvictions led to the death of Li Siqiang at the age of 37. And his elder brother ran around for his unjust case and endured all the hardships, but when he learned that his younger brother was innocent, he had advanced pancreatic cancer.
The police, the procuratorate, and the courts, which are hearing this case, should all be held accountable
Here, especially in the case of the Longhu District People's Court in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, three wrong judgments, even people who do not understand the law know who is right and who is wrong. Such a mistake delays more than just one person's youth. Two lives, a family tragedy, who will bear this responsibility.
The fact that the court was able to make three wrong judgments shows that they do not want to overturn the case, and they will be responsible if the case is overturned.
It is hoped that the state will take action to severely punish these public prosecutors and procuratorates who have misjudged and misjudged, and that they will also be held criminally responsible if the circumstances are serious.