Thaindian News

Beijing, June 29 (IANS) In a case of justice delayed being justice denied, a Chinese blogger detained for a year after mocking a top officials’ alleged interference in judicial procedure in a high-profile anti-crime campaign has won a lawsuit against the action.

The Chongqing Third Intermediate Court ruled that it was against the law for the police to detain Fang Hong, a forestry department employee, Xinhua reported.

Fang was sent to a Re-education Through Labour Center, a police-run extra-judicial detention facility, for one year April 28, 2011, for “inciting social disturbances”, according to the police record. He was released April 24 this year.

Fang said he was apprehended after posting a joke on a microblog criticizing Chongqing’s former top official Bo Xilai and former police chief Wang Lijun’s meddling in a case against Li Zhuang, a controversial lawyer defending suspects in mafia-related cases in Chongqing’s crackdown on organized crime.

Fang said the right to free speech is protected by the Constitution and, according to the law, his comments on the microblog should not have landed him in the labour camp.

The court said Fang’s comments were indecent, but the act should not be counted as spreading rumours and it did not result in social disturbances and did not in any way seriously violate national interest.