Anhui Farmer Cleared of Murder Charges after 16 Years in Prison

(Beijing) – A farmer in Anhui Province was freed from prison after 16 years when a judge conducting a retrial ruled that confessions police obtained by apparently torturing suspects were flawed.

Zhang Yun was set free on July 17 after winning an acquittal in Suzhou Intermediate People's Court, in the eastern province of Anhui, in a case involving the strangling death of a 17-year-old village girl in 1996. The judge ruled that the confessions of Zhang and other men initially convicted in the case were flawed.