In an explosion case from 25 years ago, a plea of innocence was filed after all the perpetrators had served their sentences
In the residential area of Wenhua Street, Chengguan Town, Shichi County, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, the former residence of the victim Jin Guifen. Photo/ Caixin reporter Huang Yuxin
Caixin Weekly wen | Caixin reporter Huang Yuxin
January 1, 2021, the first day of the New Year. Lu Zhenna, a 62-year-old native of Shichi, Henan Province, learned from her lawyer that in the bombing case that put her in jail many years ago, four other people or their families who were identified as co-offenders have received a response to the appeal filed by the Henan Provincial High Court. A month later, on February 1, Lu Zhenna also submitted her complaint materials to the Henan High Court.
For this case that changed her fate, for more than 20 years, Lu Zhenna and her husband Chen Laiyou, who was a member of the Standing Committee of the Shichi County CPC Committee and director of the county party committee, never mentioned it, "I don't want to talk about things that make the other party sad." It wasn't until more than a month ago, in November 2020, when Chen Laiyou passed away, that she decided to appeal.
On January 8, 2021, Lu Zhenna showed a group photo taken with Chen Laiyou before his death. Chen Laiyou passed away in November 2020. Photo / Caixin reporter Huang Yuxin
On January 5, 1996, an explosion occurred in Shichi County, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, in which jin Guifen, the female host and director of the county television station, and her second daughter were killed.
Before the vicious explosion that caused a sensation in western Henan 25 years ago, Xi Dingwa was the deputy director of the village committee of North Street in Chengguan Town, and was a neighbor of Lü Zhenna's parents and Lü Zhenna's cousin Li Wenyu; Li Wenyu was the owner of a local cement pre-product factory; and Chen Hongwei was Xi Dingwa's nephew, who worked as a driver in a coal mine in Shichi. Ru Liutuo is the director of the orchard traffic management station of the Transportation Management Office of the Transportation Bureau of Shichi County, and when he went to school, he and Lu Zhenna's brother were members of the school basketball team, and after getting acquainted, they recognized Lü Mu as a dry mother. After many trials in this case, the Henan Provincial Higher People's Court finally ruled that Lü Zhenna had a grudge against Jin Guifen because she suspected that her husband Chen Laiyou had an ambiguous relationship with Jin Guifen, so she instructed Xi Dingwa and Ru Liu to take revenge on Jin Guifen. Xi Dingwa also colluded with Li Wenyu and Chen Hongwei, and together with Ru Liutuo, took revenge on Jin Guifen by means of explosions, resulting in Jin Guifen and her second daughter being killed and the eldest daughter being injured.
In the end, Xi Dingwa was sentenced and executed, Li Wenyu and Ru Liuzuo were sentenced to suspended death, and Lü Zhenna and Chen Hongwei were sentenced to ten and eight years in prison, respectively. All four have completed their sentences.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="102" > the explosion on the night of the full moon</h1>
The ancient city of Shichi is located in the northwest of Henan, bordering the Yellow River in the north and across the river from Shanxi, and belongs to Sanmenxia City.
On the evening of January 5, 1996, a loud noise came from the residential area of Cultural Street in Chengguan Town, Shichi, and then the flames soared into the sky, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder. A large hole was blown up in the wall of the kitchen of jin guifen, the director of the county television station, and the items in the house were covered with rubble, and Jin Guifen's nine-year-old second daughter died on the spot, and Jin Guifen and her eldest daughter Jin Lei were injured. The people who rushed to the scene by the sound still remember this tragic scene deeply.
After being taken to the hospital, Jin Guifen quickly gasped. Although Jin Lei was injured but still awake, she later recalled to the police the half hour at home before the explosion: "At 7:30 p.m., the "News Network" just ended, and my mother came home. About a quarter of an hour later, my sister came home, the power went out at home, my mother went to the gang room to eat, eat porridge, I used gas to cook dumplings. The sister was talking to her mother, saying that her grandmother had scolded her and that she had gone to the exam during the day. The dumplings boiled for six or seven minutes before they exploded. I didn't hear the noise, I just felt a black sitting on the ground in front of me. The explosion occurred outside the kitchen wall. ”
For the explosion, Lu Zhenna, who lived in the county town, recalled that she did not pay special attention to it at that time. In those days, she was very busy: on January 1, Chen Laiyou's sister's hotel opened; on the 8th, Chen Laiyou's sister held a wedding banquet. On the night of the explosion, Lu Zhenna was discussing with relatives to go to Luoyang the next day to buy wedding supplies.
In 1979, Lu Zhenna and Chen Laiyou took wedding photos in Shanghai. Figure / Courtesy of the interviewee
The high-profile bombings have reached an impasse. A special case team led by the then director of the Sanmenxia Municipal Public Security Bureau investigated for a month, and the four suspects who were initially believed to be suspected were all alibi. Near the Spring Festival of 1996, the provinces and cities were carrying out the "strike hard" struggle, Jin Guifen was a celebrity in the county, and the county residents, Jin Guifen's relatives and friends were very concerned about the case, and these pressures made the members of the task force "impatient".
"The county seat of Shichi county is shrouded in a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere, and when the public security personnel explore the situation, most people are silent and avoid it." The Sanmenxia local "Pillar" magazine "The Beginning and End of the 1.5 Shichi Explosion" wrote.
According to pillar magazine, before and after the bombing, from the end of November 1995 to the middle of January 1996, small posters attacking the secretary of the county party committee and leaflets distributed appeared in Shichi County.
The "Explanation on the Investigation Process of the 1.5 Mega Explosion Case in Shichi County" (hereinafter referred to as the "Explanation of the Detection Process") issued by the Sanmenxia Public Security Bureau and the Shuichi County Public Security Bureau shows that just when the special case team was at a loss, some people sent charcoal in the snow and "provided clues":
The first clue is that Chen Laiyou and Jin Guifen have an ambiguous relationship. "Half a month before the crime, the two had frequent telephone contact, Chen had been to Jin's house a few days before the crime, but after Jin's death, he was indifferent and contrasted with usual; Chen Laiyou's wife Lu Zhenna also had a quarrel with Jin Guifen, five days before the crime, Lu Zhenna and Jin Guifen met in Yangshao Building, Lu Zhenna scolded Jin Guifen for not having a face, and Jin Guifen was dismissive: 'I am friendly with Chen Lai, what can you do with me?' Lu Zhenna was so angry that she went away. ”
The second clue is that Chen Laiyou had a conflict with Li Mou, the then secretary of the county party committee. "Chen Laiyou has been in the standing committee of the county party committee for ten years, and has won many rewards in his work; he believes that he should have been the secretary of the county party committee a long time ago, and the dissatisfaction of his career has caused him to have a grudge with Li; the contradictions in the past two years have become clearer; Chen Laiyou has said on many occasions that Li is not, and the large and small character newspapers and intimidation and slander incidents that appear in the county town are most likely chen's doing."
The special case team believed that there might be a connection between the explosion and the large and small character reports, and decided to investigate the two cases together. The police's "Explanation of the Detection Process" recorded: "For well-known reasons, the traces and physical evidence at the scene of the explosion are almost impossible to extract, and all traces and physical evidence will be destroyed with the explosion, so to break through this case, we must 'find another way'." After discussion and study by the special task force, it was decided to carry out work with large and small character newspapers as a breakthrough point. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="102" > five people were arrested</h1>
Considering that Lü Zhenna and Chen Laiyou are influential people in Shichi, the special case team believes that Lu Zhenna and Chen Laiyou are unlikely to commit the crime themselves, and if the two cases are related to them, they may have planned and implemented by their cronies. The conclusion of the investigation held that Jin Guifen and Chen Laiyou had no contradictions, and Chen Laiyou could not have committed crimes, but it was not excluded that Chen Laiyou's surroundings would go to court him.
Who would curry favor with Chen Laiyou to commit a crime? Village official Xi Dingwa and businessman Li Wenyu, who is related to Lu Zhenna, thus entered the police's field of vision.
On the evening of April 9, 1996, Li Wenyu was taken to the Kunshan Hotel in Sanmenxia City. The reason is that after the special case team secretly extracted Li Wenyu's handwriting, after appraisal by the Xinxiang City Public Security Bureau in Henan Province, it was determined that Li Wenyu had written a small character newspaper.
"Since the evening of April 9, I have experienced five days and six nights of torture to extract confessions." Li Wenyu recalled to Caixin reporters that on the evening of April 10, the then deputy director of the Sanmenxia City Public Security Bureau surnamed Yao asked Li Wenyu to explain the problem: "Director Yao said, we want to get Chen Laiyou, not you, as long as you honestly explain how Chen Laiyou instructed you to write and paste small character newspapers, how to send threatening letters to Secretary Li, and how to instruct you to do the bombing case, I will immediately let you go home." I replied that I hadn't done it, and I didn't know these things. ”
But late on the night of April 10, Li Wenyu admitted that he had written a small-character poster insulting the secretary of the county party committee and confessed that Xi Dingwa and Chen Hongwei were also involved in writing and posting the small-character newspaper.
On April 11, Chen Hongwei and Xi Dingwa were taken to the Kunshan Hotel.
According to the transcript of the procurator's interrogation of Chen Hongwei on November 6, 1996, six months later, Chen Hongwei recalled: "The public security personnel also handcuffed me, did not let me sleep for several days and nights, and engaged in wheel wars. From April 11th to April 18th, I never slept from day to night, giving only two or two buns or buns per meal. I said no, they beat me, they grabbed the chain in the middle of the handcuffs, and stomped my chest with their feet, and I still have marks of strangulation on my left and right wrists. (Reach out for the undertaker to see, the traces are true). I grew up so big and hadn't suffered so much torture, and when I was forced to be helpless, I made up facts, they said I was premeditated, I said I was premeditated, they said I pulled explosives, I said I pulled explosives. ”
In the early morning of April 12, Li Wenyu confessed for the first time during the bombing. Li Wenyu said that he and Xi Dingwa and Ru Liutao took a jeep driven by Chen Hongwei to the scene to commit the crime. Li Wenyu later told Caixin reporters: "They are not satisfied with the first confession. In order to save my life, I was reminded by the case-handling personnel and changed it five times before forming a confession of the explosion case. ”
On the evening of April 12, Ru Liu was taken to the Shichi County Public Security Bureau. On April 13, Chen Hongwei and Ru Liuzuo made guilty confessions consistent with Li Wenyu. Both admitted that the driver who drove to borrow the explosives and the scene was Chen Hongwei; Xi Dingwa, Ru Liuzuo, and Li Wenyu carried out the bombing. Chen Hongwei said in the appeal materials that he did not know Ru Liuzhuo, and the special case team found eight photos and asked Chen Hongwei to identify, "after three or four times of identification, it was pointed out."
The interrogation transcript records that the interrogation was not confessed until seven days later, and the case-handling personnel said that Xi Dingwa had the "most dishonest attitude." On April 18, Xi Dingwa finally confessed to the process of carrying out the explosion with Li Wenyu, Ru Liuzuo, and Chen Hongwei.
The number and time of the bombing were determined, and Li Wenyu's confession was also confirmed by the confessions of several others: "On the afternoon of January 5, Xi Dingwa, Li Wenyu, Ru Liuzuo, and Chen Hongwei premeditated the explosion and carried out the explosion that night. In addition to the number of perpetrators and the time of the crime in this version, Ru Liutuo, Li Wenyu, Xi Dingwa, and Chen Hongwei all had different statements, and in the end they were not accepted by the investigators.
The last to "catch the net" was Lu Zhenna. At the same time that Xi Dingwa and others were being interrogated, on April 16, 1996, Lu Zhenna's husband Chen Laiyou and Chen Laiyou's brother-in-law, Wang Zhiyi, then director of the county mining management bureau, were also criminally detained. The next day, Lü Zhenna and Wang Zhiyi's wife, Chen Xiaohua, went to Zhengzhou to submit materials to the Henan Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission for rescue. The sisters-in-law used their mobile phones to inquire about the situation at home and were told that "the public security bureau has been looking for you." Fearing that they would be arrested when they returned home, they decided to go to Beijing to file a complaint with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and then went to the law firm and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
On the morning of May 14, the sisters-in-law returned to Zhengzhou and went to the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission again to file a complaint. This act was considered by the Shuichi Public Security to be "Lu Zhenna's surrender.". On the same day, the two were taken to the Provincial Public Security Department and brought back by the Shichi Public Security Bureau.
On the afternoon of May 15, Lu Zhenna confessed: One day at the end of December 1995, in front of the Yangshao Building, she and Jin Guifen had a verbal altercation, so she asked Xi Dingwa and Ru Liu to teach Jin Guifen a lesson, but she did not expect to cause this consequence.
After the case was transferred for review and prosecution, the suspects retracted their confessions when they saw the prosecutors who were arraigned. Xi Dingwa proposed that he did not have a premeditated time at noon and afternoon on January 5. Later, after verification by the investigation organs, on the afternoon of January 5, Xi Dingwa and some villagers in the village discussed the construction of the circle wall with the chengguan town government in Shichi, and Li Wenyu also said that he was in the Chengguan town government at that time. On July 4, the Sanmenxia Municipal Procuratorate found that the facts of the case were unclear and the evidence was insufficient, and returned it to the Shichi County Public Security Bureau for supplementary investigation.
Later first-instance trial records show that Li Wenyu, Xi Dingwa, Ru Liuzuo, and Chen Hongwei all pointed out in court that after the procuratorate withdrew from investigation, starting on July 15, 1996, they encountered a new round of centralized torture to extract confessions, and the four made new confessions about the premeditated time, which was uniformly changed to "from noon to afternoon on January 4, 1996."
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="102" > crowded public hearing</h1>
In September 1996, the Sanmenxia Municipal Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the Sanmenxia Intermediate Court. On the morning of December 12, 1996, at the Shichi County Detention Center, the Sanmenxia Intermediate Court held a trial of the bombing case.
"On that day, the wind and rain in the pond were mixed, and the cold was attacking. The trial chamber was surrounded by water, and loudspeakers broadcast the trial live to the public. People who couldn't get into the courtroom gathered at the door and listened to the broadcast by loudspeakers. Several observers of the trial recalled. Pillar magazine recorded that on that day, "more than 2,000 people braved heavy rain to observe."
At the opening of the first-instance trial, the main points of dispute between the two sides were whether Lu Zhenna and the other five people had premeditated and committed the crime; whether they had been tortured to extract confessions; and whether the evidence in the case was sufficient.
The procuratorate alleged that Lu Zhenna suspected that her husband Chen Laiyou had an improper relationship with Jin Guifen, the director of the cable station of the county radio and television bureau, and held a grudge against Jin and waited for an opportunity to take revenge. One day in late 1995 or early January 1996, Lü gathered Xi Dingwa and Ru Liutao to plot revenge on Jin in his home. Xi also colluded with Li Wenyu and Chen Hongwei. On the afternoon of January 4, 1996, when Xi Dingwa, together with Ru Liuzuo, Li Wenyu, and Chen Hongwei, was drinking at home and plotting how to threaten Jin, Ru Liuzhuo proposed to use explosives to destroy the Jin family's house. Xi Dingwa then divided the work, let Chen Hongwei drive by Ru Liutuo to borrow explosives, detonators, and fuses, let Li Wenyu be responsible for lighting the cannons, and agreed to concentrate at Xi's house on the evening of the 5th. On the evening of January 5, after the four defendants gathered in the Xi family, Xi, Ru, and Li assembled the explosives, detonators, and fuses, and then rode in a jeep driven by Chen Hongwei to the vicinity of Jin Guifen's home, where Chen Hongwei waited, And Xi, Ru Wangfeng, and Li Wenyu placed the explosive package on the east side of the Jin family's house and detonated it, causing Jin Guifen and her young daughter to be killed and her eldest daughter to be injured.
The procuratorate's indictment said: The above-mentioned criminal facts are supported by the confessions of Xi Dingwa, Ru Liuzuo, Li Wenyu, Lu Zhenna, and Chen Hongwei, witness testimony, on-site investigation records, and forensic appraisals. To sum up, because Lü Zhenna suspected that her husband Chen Laiyou had an improper relationship with Jin Guifen, she instructed Xi Dingwa and Ru Liutuo to retaliate against Jin Guifen, and Xi also colluded with Li Wenyu and Chen Hongwei and Ru Liuzhu to take revenge on Jin by means of explosions, causing serious consequences for Jin Guifen and her younger daughter to be killed and her eldest daughter being injured, seriously endangering public safety and violating citizens' personal and property rights. The acts of Xi Dingwa, Ru Liuzuo, Li Wenyu, Lü Zhenna, and Chen Hongwei together constitute the crime of explosion. Xi Dingwa, Ru Liutuo, Li Wenyu, and Lü Zhenna were the main organizers and main offenders in this case, and should all be given heavier punishments; Chen Hongwei played an auxiliary role in this case and was an accessory.
The trial transcript shows that there is a great controversy as to whether the defendant committed the crime and the time of the premeditation; two statements appear in the premeditated time. The original premeditation and crime time determined by the police were on January 5.
According to the police's "Explanation of the Detection Process", at noon on January 5, Xi Dingwa, Ru Liutuo, Li Wenyu and Chen Hongwei ate and drank at Xi Dingwa's house, and Xi Dingwa and Ru Liutuo mentioned that Lu Zhenna said that they wanted to retaliate against Jin Guifen, and the four of them planned the bombing. Subsequently, Chen Hongwei drove Ru Liu to borrow explosives, and in the afternoon four people made preparations and carried out the explosion at night.
In this regard, the three defendants, Xi Dingwa, Ru Liutuo, and Li Wenyu, all claimed that they did not have time to commit the crime. Relevant materials show that on the afternoon of January 5, Xi Dingwa, then deputy director of the village committee of Beijie Village in Chengguan Town, held a meeting with many people at the office of the party secretary of Chengguan Town, Chengguan County, to discuss the local construction bank circle wall, and the results were not discussed on the same day.
Many participants initially recalled that after the meeting, about 6 p.m., everyone went to Jianyin Restaurant for dinner. At about 7 p.m., Xi Dingwa left jianyin restaurant and went to the home of Zhang Jianzhen, a fellow villager. Zhang Jianzhen recalled that after Staying at home for more than an hour, Xi Dingwa answered the phone and left.
According to the original record of the work log of one participant, the meeting was held at 8 p.m. However, relevant information shows that many participants and Zhang Jianzhen said in their later inquiries that they did not accurately remember the time when Xi Dingwa left Jianyin Restaurant and Zhang Jianzhen's home. The investigative organs held that according to Xi Dingwa's usual habit of drinking and "not leaving the table without leaving the table", he only drank a few glasses of wine that day and left the table, so Xi Dingwa's crime time could not be ruled out.
Li Wenyu also said that he had no time to commit the crime, and on the afternoon of January 5, he wanted to observe the construction bank's circle wall but was blocked, and after knowing that the results had not been discussed, he went to the home of Yuan Yuzi, a fellow villager, and gathered with many villagers to discuss the matter at night, and stayed in the Yuan family until more than 8 p.m. Those involved in the discussion of the matter remembered, "After the power outage, candles were lit in the house and the discussion continued."
Ru Liutao, the director of the Orchard Traffic Management Station of the Transportation Management Office of the Transportation Management Bureau of Shichi County, said that he was on duty that night. According to the case file information, a number of staff members of the traffic management station proved that Ru Liu was on duty at the traffic management station that night, and the fine ticket issued also had Ru Liu's signature on it.
Lu Zhenna's defense lawyer at the time, Zhang Shaoqian, who was a professor at the Law School of Zhengzhou University at the time, wrote in his defense statement: "A driver pointed out that he was investigated at about 7:20 p.m. on the 5th, and paid for it at about 9:40 p.m. There were two people who had been there, one surnamed Ru and the other didn't know what his surname was, because the ticket was signed with the surname Ru. He still remembers that the money was not enough to pay the fine that night, and Ru Liutuo suggested that he stay nearby, and then go home to collect the money during the day and put the car at the traffic control station first. ”
However, the police also got counter-evidence: some traffic management station staff said that on January 5, They did not see Ru Liushuo at work, and the ticket number and date of the ticket issued by the traffic management station were very confusing and could not reflect the real situation.
After the Shichi Procuratorate reported the case to the Sanmenxia Procuratorate, on July 4, 1996, the procuratorate returned it to the Shichi County Public Security Bureau for supplementary investigation on the grounds that the facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient. However, during this supplementary investigation phase, the premeditated time changed: Xi Dingwa, Ru Liuzuo, Li Wenyu, and Chen Hongwei all overturned their previous confessions and uniformly changed the premeditated time to January 4.
The change in premeditated time later became one of the focal points of the trial. In court, Lu Zhenna's defense lawyer, Zhang Shaoqian, once asked Li Wenyu: "Why did you first say that you drank alcohol on January 5, committed the crime on January 5, and later said that you drank alcohol on January 4?" Li Wenyu replied: "At first, the public security bureau said that January 5 would be decided, and later it was said that January 4 would be set, and I would say that it was January 4." ”
During the trial, Chen Hongwei said that even if it was premeditated to January 4, he did not have a premeditated time. He was The nephew of Xi Dingwa, who worked as a driver in a coal mine in Shichi before the crime. Relevant materials show that the person in charge of Chen Hongwei's coal mine, Suo Mou, had proved that he took Chen Hongwei's car to and from the county town to shop on the morning of January 4, and Chen Hongwei had lunch at the mine; in the afternoon, the car was parked on the mine, and Chen Hongwei drove away at about 4 o'clock. This testimony shows that Chen Hongwei did not have the time conditions to go to Xi Dingwa's house at noon to drink, drive, and take explosives with Ru Liu in the afternoon.
Unexpectedly, eight days before the trial of the case, Suo changed his testimony, saying that he was not sure whether Chen Hongwei was at the mine on the afternoon of January 4; the details of Chen Hongwei's lunch at the mine and his departure at about 4 p.m. were "speculated based on the usual situation."
"The number of people involved in the explosion has changed several times." Zhang Shaoqian believes that through careful reading of the file, it can be found that the perpetrators identified in the indictment are Xi Dingwa, Ru Liutuo, Li Wenyu, and Chen Hongwei, but on April 11, 1996, Xi Dingwa confessed to five perpetrators at the first trial, and later said that he could not remember several people, and in June he completely retracted his confession, and only in July did he confess that it was four people who committed the crime; the confessions of Chen Hongwei, Ru Liutuo, Li Wenyu, and others also showed the characteristics of inconsistency in the number of perpetrators.
Regarding the source of explosives, detonators and fuses of the crime tools, Zhang Shaoqian believes that it is also unclear. He told Caixin reporters that Gao Gailu, a mine owner identified as lending explosives, said that Ru Liu had only lent out one packet of explosives, a total of three kilograms, and several "electric detonators." But Ru Liu said that he borrowed two packs of explosives totaling ten kilograms, eight "fire detonators" and two meters of fuse.
"There are three theories about the way explosives are taken. Is the type of detonator a fire detonator or an electric detonator? What is the quantity of explosives and fuses and where are the sources? What is the way to bundle explosives? Where and how were the explosives placed near Kim Gye-fen's house? What is the route in and out of the crime scene? The confessions of the four men differed in these questions. Zhang Shaoqian believes that the chain of evidence in the case is incomplete.
Zhang Shaoqian raised his doubts to the court: "Why is there such a big difference in the four populations?" Why, by the time of the supplementary investigation in July, their accounts were quickly and completely consistent? The reasons for this cannot but arouse suspicion. He believes that this abnormal "accidentality" is likely to be caused by torture to extract confessions.
However, in the end, the four defendants testified and denied the allegations of extorting confessions by the case-handling personnel by torture. The lawyer's and client's request for injury examination was not upheld by the court. The trial lasted until the early hours of the next morning.
On March 13, 1997, the first-instance judgment was issued. Xi Dingwa, Ru Liutuo, and Li Wenyu were convicted of the crime of explosion, and all three were considered to have played a major role and were sentenced to death; Lü Zhenna was convicted of intentional injury (causing death) and sentenced to ten years in prison; and Chen was guilty of an explosive crime and was an accessory and sentenced to eight years in prison. Five people were not satisfied and appealed.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="102" > "the sky has collapsed"</h1>
On July 3, 1997, the Henan Higher People's Court sent the case back to the Sanmenxia Intermediate People's Court for retrial on the grounds that the facts were unclear. On October 20 and 21 of that year, the Sanmenxia Intermediate Court publicly tried the case for the second time at the Shichi County Court.
Two kilometers away from the Shichi County Courthouse is the prefectural high school. Chen Zheng, a first-year high school student, listened to the accusations against his mother, Lu Zhenna, while attending class. "The loudspeaker puts the trial situation and hears it clearly at school. I really want to die. ”
This trial was the last time Xi Miaomiao, Xi Dingwa's daughter, saw her father. "I didn't recognize Dad at first. Strong, he became very thin and in bad shape. Xi Miaomiao recalled that when she was 12 years old, she wanted her father to see her, and shouted "Daddy", Xi Dingwa turned her head and looked at her, "After I finished shouting, a bailiff came to me, grabbed my clothes roughly, dragged me outside the gate, pushed me to the ground, and got a heavy hand." I saw my father for ten minutes."
In the subsequent trial, Xi Dingwa confessed her guilt in court, which shocked Lu Zhenna. "At that time, I heard that if the second trial did not admit guilt, it would release us in court, but I did not expect that Xi Dingwa confessed, and as a result, she died and was sentenced to death."
At this trial, all the defendants stated in court the process of being tortured to extract confessions, showed the scars on their bodies to the adjudicators, and repeatedly asked the court to examine the injuries on the spot.
On November 27, the second first-instance judgment of the Sanmenxia Intermediate People's Court issued that the determination of the relevant facts was the same as the previous judgment, but the determination of the division of labor between Xi Dingwa, Ru Liutuo, and Li Wenyu was changed: "In the crime, Xi Dingwa actively organized the division of labor, and Li Wenyu and Ru Liutuo actively participated, but the role and status of the two were different from those of Xi Dingwa." Xi Dingwa was sentenced to death, Ru Liutuo and Li Wenyu were sentenced to suspended death, and Lü Zhenna and Chen Hongwei were sentenced to ten years and eight years respectively. The five were not satisfied and appealed to the Henan Higher People's Court.
This result was obviously unexpected by Xi Dingwa, who chose to confess guilt in court but was sentenced to death. On December 11, 1997, Xi Dingwa wrote a 16-page letter of appeal to the Henan Provincial High Court. The letter of complaint mentioned that he had been "beaten to death many times": "The police punched and kicked me, punched me in the face and head with the slippers I wore in the hotel; grabbed my hair and hit my head against the wall; my wrists were handcuffed and my bones were exposed; I passed out on the spot, and the police officers woke me up with cold water and threatened me. ”
"I am exposed to my eyes for a long time and I am not allowed to eat, drink or urinate." In the letter, Xi Dingwa complained that she was "asked to kneel for a public security officer, kneeling for more than 20 hours, her knees were pusy, inflamed, and the pain was unbearable, and just when I was tortured to the point of not looking like a human, the interrogation began again." "I was beaten all over the body, my legs were swollen, I couldn't move, my feet were swollen due to torture, my socks couldn't be taken off, I cut them with scissors and kept them as evidence, and I presented the cut socks in court."
In her appeal letter, Xi Dingwa explained why she made a confession: "I felt that I had just met a soldier, and I couldn't explain it clearly, and with the hope of survival, I decided to make a plan: repeat it according to what the police said, save my life first, and then explain it to the procuratorate when the case arrives at the procuratorate." "But as for why he pleaded guilty in court at the second first instance trial, there was no mention in the letter of appeal." The evidence was neither solid nor sufficient; ”
More than 20 years later, the 64-year-old Zhang Shaoqian was deeply impressed by the case, "I was doing a not guilty defense at that time, but the local political factors had a great impact on the case, and the lawyer's opinion was not adopted."
However, on December 31 of that year, the Henan Provincial High Court upheld the original judgment in its final judgment. According to the judgment, Xi Dingwa, Li Wenyu, Ru Liushuo, and their defenders claimed that they did not have the time to commit the crime, but after checking with multiple witnesses, they could prove that the three had a time to commit the crime; the original confession of the original crime they complained of was caused by torture to extract a confession and induce a confession, and after investigation, it could not be established; after Being arrested, Lu Zhenna and five others had confessed to the joint crime on many occasions, and the time, place, circumstances, and specific division of labor of the crime they confessed were consistent with the records of the on-site investigation and the testimony of witnesses, and the confessions of the five defendants could also corroborate each other, which was sufficient to confirm.
On January 15, 1998, the heavy snow on the day of Xi Dingwa's execution often appeared in front of her daughter Xi Miaomiao. "The snow is particularly heavy, I've never seen that much snow. It was very difficult to walk, one foot deep, one foot shallow, and before we could go to the execution ground to see my father for the last time, someone came to inform us that it had been executed in advance and that we would go to collect the body. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="102" > appeal</h1>
After serving a long sentence, Ru Liutao and Li Wenyu, who had regained their freedom, were the first to appeal.
"As soon as I opened the door of the room, Ru Liu, who was in his 60s, 'pounced' on my knees, and he wept bitterly at the door, saying that he had been wronged and that his confession had been made by torture." In 2016, as soon as Ru Liutao was released from prison, he rushed to meet with the lawyer Peng Ruiping, who was deeply impressed by the scene at that time, "He showed me the wound, said how he was tortured to confess, and cried for more than two hours." ”
Li Wenyu complained while serving his sentence. Lu Zengmin, who was held in the same cell as Li Wenyu in the detention center from 1997 to 1999, recalled: "When Li Wenyu was locked up, he cried out that he had been wronged, saying that he had been beaten by the police and had been pinched by pincers. I saw that he had no fingernails and had injuries on his legs. He wrote a lot of material, and as soon as he proposed it, he was full of excitement. Li Wenyu's family also complained about it for ten years.
In mid-2020, Li Wenyu and Ru Liuzhuo found Lu Zhenna and invited her to appeal together, but Chen Laiyou in the sickbed refused. Shortly after his wife's arrest, Chen Laiyou was also arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes, accused of accepting bribes of 2,000 yuan, but not meeting the criteria for filing a case.
His brother-in-law, Wang Zhiyi, was arrested in April 1996 on suspicion of defamation — a party whistleblower letter about Li Mou, then secretary of the county party committee, which Wang Zhiyi admitted to writing, and was sentenced to one year and six months in prison by the Lushi County Court in Sanmenxia in July 1997. After ten years of appeal, in May 2006, the Sanmenxia Intermediate People's Court finally acquitted Wang Zhiyi.
From 2016 to 2020, after many twists and turns, the five parties and their families in the bombing case finally walked together and decided to ask for an explanation. Originally, the number of lawyers for the two increased to 12, providing legal assistance to the five families of Xi Dingwa, Ru Liushuo, Li Wenyu, Chen Hongwei and Lu Zhenna.
Knowing that the complaint was accepted, Ru Liuzu burst into tears and kept thanking the lawyer. Li Wenyu, 65, also released his emotions. "I couldn't stop crying, I cried for more than 20 minutes, and I cried happily." Li Wenyu looked a bit wooden, always with his head down, hiding from the eyes of others, and talking intermittently, which was the imprint of prison life.
"Fate is playing tricks on me." Looking back on the past, Lu Zhenna's biggest gap and regret is that "I can't arrange a good job for my children, and the arrangements for my children are chaotic." Compared with whether the appeal was successful, Lu Zhenna's family was more concerned about "whether the case-handling personnel of that year could be held accountable."
Note: This article was published in Caixin Weekly, No. 11, 2021, and was originally titled: New Wave of The Old Explosion Case in Western Henan
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