Boy's name put him in custody for 212 days

A 15-year-old Chinese boy was wrongly detained for 212 days on a robbery charge and paraded in handcuffs in front of his schoolmates as a warning to them.

But the innocent boy's only "offense" was that he had the same name as the suspect.

An intermediate court in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China ruled that the boy, surnamed Wang, was due 23,000 yuan (US$3,450) in state compensation. But Wang and his family complained they had lost much more than that and were preparing to appeal for more compensation because of the damage to the boy's reputation and his mental anguish, the China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Wang, who lives in Bole City, told the newspaper that he was taken away by police in September 2008 while he was in an Internet cafe after he confirmed his name and admitted he knew a boy surnamed Ma.

But the police were unaware that Ma had another friend with the same name.

Wang tried to explain at the police station that he was innocent and that there was another boy with the same name, but officers thought he was lying, he told the newspaper.

He pleaded guilty on his fourth day in custody after he was told he could go home if he admitted taking part in the robbery.

However, Wang was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for robbery, along with Ma, by the city's court on November 30, 2008.

Wang said that the police showed him Ma's confession and made him copy it during his interrogation.

Wang met Ma in a juvenile detention house in January 2009 where Ma confirmed that Wang was innocent and that the real robber was another boy with the same name and of the same age, the newspaer said.

Wang told his parents what Ma had said when they visited him in the detention house.

In March the same year, the victim of the robbery went to the detention house and confirmed that Wang wasn't one of the boys who had robbed him. Wang was freed on April 2 while the actual robber was sentenced to one year in prison with probation of two years.

Wang's father applied for compensation of more than 1.3 million yuan (US$195,000) and asked for an official apology. The intermediate court decided that Wang was due 23,000 yuan in compensation.

The boy and the family complained that the case of mistaken identity had caused them mental suffering and economic loss.

"I was always thinking about how to clear my name," Wang told the newspaper.

He said he had been forced to "show his regret" by wearing handcuffs and reading a confession letter as a warning to pupils of his age in three local schools.

Bi Xiaolu, deputy Party secretary of Bole City, told the newspaper that the police and court officials involved in the case had been "punished."

Bi said officials could apologize in the three schools but he ruled out the possibility of negotiating with the family about compensation.