Outrage over light sentence for man in China who violently abused wife and forced her to sleep in pigsty
- Many people believed the 18-month sentence was too light given the crime
- Doctors found evidence of long-term systematic physical abuse during a medical check-up after a witness took her to the hospital
The ruling was made earlier in April, but the court documents were recently uploaded online, where it caught people’s attention and started to spread across China.
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The sentencing caused an uproar among internet users, who complained the punishment was too lenient.
“Only one-and-a-half years in jail? Is this really a warning to society? Or just saying it is not a big deal to abuse your wife?” said one Weibo user.
“The man destroyed his wife for life and yet he only got one-and-a-half years in jail,” said another.
According to China’s criminal law, family members can be sentenced up to two years in jail for serious abuse cases that do not result in severe injury or death. Abuse incidents that do lead to serious injury or death can lead to a sentence of between two and seven years.
The wife, 30, identified only by the family name Yu, married Wu, 39, in 2017 in Mingshui county and he started abusing her shortly after, a court document showed.
Yu told the Mingshui People’s Court that Wu and his mother had been verbally and physically abusing her. She was not given food but had to do heavy labour. She lived in the pigpen, was starved, not kept warm and was tortured physically and mentally.