A Beijing court sentenced 10 men to prison for staffing an illegal "black jail" on Wednesday. The men were reportedly hired by the local government to detain those who had come to Beijing merely to lodge complaints.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the sentencing is the first step taken by China to crack down on extralegal detention of its citizens. Those apprehended will spend between six months and two years for their crimes.
However some, like Chinese woman San Shuling, believe those who are most responsible for their crimes have yet to pay the ultimate punishment.
"The men behind the case were not even charged," she said. "The representatives in Beijing of the Chang Ge city government were the ones responsible, but the court said the case had nothing to do with our local government."
Shuling said she was seized on April 28 by men working for Chang Ge's representative office in Beijing, forced onto a bus, and taken to an isolated house surrounded by wasteland outside the city.
Still, today's ruling "means there will be fewer illegal detentions of petitioners in future," said lawyer Lu Fangzheng. "Local governments will have to consider the risks of doing this."
Media reports of an earlier hearing in the case in December were quickly censored in China, reported The Christian Science Monitor.
"There has been a lot of public pressure on this issue," Lu said. "The Beijing government had to show that it was not protecting these black jails. But it doesn't look like more than a gesture to me at the moment."
