Biz Unusual

Mirror is porn product: Police

By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-19 08:04

An antiques dealer detained by officers after selling a mirror with erotic images on it has appealed to a higher court yesterday after she lost a civil case against police at Xuanwu district court.

Yang Hua, 42, was accused by Xuanwu police of selling an antique bronze mirror with pornographic sexual images on it on March 12 and was detained for three days. She sued the Xuanwu district police department, but lost the case on Tuesday.

Her husband surnamed Duo told METRO she had appealed to the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court and requested Xuanwu police to withdraw their accusation that she sold a pornographic product.

Duo said that if they win the case on appeal, they will ask for 4,000 yuan in compensation because Xuanwu police destroyed the mirror which Yang was selling at Baoguosi Antiques Collection Market in March.

METRO tried to contact with Beijing municipal public security bureau, but they were not available for comment.

Xuanwu police detained Yang for three days for selling a pornographic product at the market on March 12.

They also confiscated the bronze mirror, which featured four sculptures of a naked couple having sex.

"We bought that mirror from a market in Shijiazhuang about five years ago at 600 yuan," Duo said. "It is a bronze mirror from the late Ming Dynasty or early Qing Dynasty, and is about 400 years old. We decided to sell it in March because of the bad economic situation. Its market value is 3,000 to 4,000 yuan now."

He said Baoguosi police detained five antique sellers for the same reason that day. The couple have been running an antiques business for 10 years in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province but came to the Baoguosi Antiques Collection Market almost every month.

After Yang was released from Xuanwu detention house, the couple sued Xuanwu police in Xuanwu court immediately.

Xuanwu court ruled on an identification report provided by Beijing municipal public security bureau, which said the bronze mirror is pornography, the Beijing Times reported yesterday.

"Beijing police are not qualified to identify the bronze mirror's artistic value, so we question the legitimacy of the identification," said Qin Hua, the Shijiazhuang couple's laywer.

He also said the logic that sex constitutes as pornographic is inappropriate, but it is hard to elaborate further because the mirror had been destroyed.

"The regulation of identifying evidence is very unclear in China," said Lao Dongyan, associate professor from school of law at Tsinghua University.

"Local police was one party involved. If they were eligible to provide the identification result, Yang should be able to have the same right too. The court should take the opinions from experts in this field."

She also said that the mirror should not have been destroyed until the case had been finalized, and the definition of pornography is unclear in Chinese law.