July 30
Death for Rapist Teacher in China
A teacher in western China who raped 23 4th- and 5th-grade girls in his
office has been sentenced to death, according to an account this week in a
Chinese newspaper.
Parents and students in Xinji village in Gansu Province said in interviews
this year with The New York Times that the teacher, Li Guang, had sent
girls to buy him cigarettes and, when they returned, raped them in his
office while the rest of the students held a study hall in the classroom.
The attacks occurred last year from September through November, and
parents say the girls never spoke out because of their deference toward
Mr. Li as a teacher.
The death sentence was reported in The Western Business Daily, the same
newspaper that carried a short article earlier this year about Mr. Li's
arrest. Although some sensational incidents are widely reported across the
country, this case received scant attention, perhaps because government
officials deemed the alarming number of attacks too controversial to
escape censorship.
Still, accounts about other rapist teachers have recently trickled into
the news media. Last month, The Beijing News reported on a primary-school
teacher who had raped 2 girls, ages 10 and 11, and was caught molesting a
girl he had blindfolded.
Experts say such rapes are still rare in Chinese schools, and while no
official statistics are known to exist, in 2003 the Education Ministry
published a list of 10 cases in which teachers had raped students.
Mr. Li's lawyers argued that he was mentally ill, The Western Business
Daily reported. But the court instead relied on an assessment from a
university expert who concluded that the teacher was competent.
Mr. Li was ordered to pay $170 to 2 of the victims for medical costs,
while his school was ordered to pay those girls $42.51. But the court
ruled that none of the girls were eligible for broader compensation from
the country school district.
(source: New York Times)
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MOBILE EXECUTION CHAMBER
Chinese police lead a condemned man into a special execution van, where he
will be put to death immediately following his sentencing by a court, in
Xian, central Chinas Shaanxi province. An anti-capital punishment group
reported at least 5,000 of the 5,476 known executions worldwide in 2004
were held in China. While the actual number of executions in China remains
a closely guarded state secret, the Beijing government insists it needs to
maintain a tough line on crimes.
(source: Gulf Times)
