MCLC: domestic violence case (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Jacqueline and Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: domestic violence case (1)
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Source: Independent (2/4/13):
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/condemned-to-death-chinese-aut
horities-ignored-complaints-of-abuse-victim-who-killed-husband-8480669.html

Condemned to death: Chinese authorities ignored complaints of abuse victim
who killed husband
By Clifford Coonan

In November 2010, after months of abuse, Li Yan snapped. She killed her
husband, Tan Yong, after he had threatened to shoot her with an air
rifle. She grabbed the gun and beat him to death with it.

Ms Li has since been condemned to death and the sentence could be carried
out any day now following approval by China¹s Supreme People¹s Court.
Legal scholars and rights groups, campaigning for Ms Li's sentence to be
commuted, say her case shows that Chinese law does not adequately
investigate cases of domestic abuse, or take the circumstances into
account when victims turn against abusers.

According to Ms Li's brother, Li Dehuai, Tan Yong had stubbed out
cigarettes on her face and legs. He would bang her head against the wall
and once dragged her down three flights of stairs by the hair. Ms Li, from
Sichuan province, says she repeatedly complained about her husband¹s abuse
to the police and other local authorities, but none took steps to
investigate. Evidence of her pleas for help was presented in court during
her trial, but rights groups say they were not taken into consideration.
"It is cruel and perverse for the government to impose the death penalty
on Li Yan when it took no action to investigate her husband¹s abuse or to
protect her from it," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human
Rights Watch. "China's legal system needs to take account of the
circumstances that can lead domestic violence survivors to resort to
violence in self-defence."

According to the Anti-Domestic Violence Network, China's women's jails are
filled with women who have wounded or killed abusive husbands.