Domestic violence victim wins death sentence reprieve

A woman who was sentenced to death for killing her abusive husband received a two-year reprieve on Friday.

File photo of Li Yan.

Li Yan, a 43-year-old from Sichuan province, was sentenced to death in 2011 for murdering her spouse Tan Yong.

Tan had physically, sexually and verbally abused Li after they got married in 2009, burning her with cigarettes and cutting off one of her fingers. Li killed her husband a year later with an air gun, cut up his body and boiled the body parts, media reports said, perhaps in an effort to dispose of them.

Her case, which highlighted the plight of the victims of domestic violence, aroused widespread discussion on Internet. Many women activists appealed for lighter sentence for her considering the abuse she had suffered.

The country's court ordered a retrial for Li last June. The high court in Sichuan province in Southwest China ordered the reprieve Friday.

"I met her yesterday, and she kept saying sorry to the family of the victim," Li's attorney Wan Miaoyan said. "Before the retrial began today, the family of the victim was using the most abusive words to insult her, and even threw shoes at her.”

The court decision is the latest one after a new guideline was issued in March on domestic violence which recommended mitigated punishment for those who commit crimes against the abuser.

China's first draft law against domestic violence was published to solicit public opinion in November. The period of consultation ended on Dec 25.

The draft law will be submitted for reading in August and will take shape after two or three readings.

Domestic violence has increased in recent years. According to a report released by All-China Women's Federation last year, nearly 40 percent of Chinese women who are married or involved in a relationship experience physical or sexual abuse, and only 7 percent of women surveyed who had experienced domestic violence called the police.