Petitioner demands police explanation  

河南周口“被精神病”农妇告赢公安

5月21日，河南周口“被精神病”132天的农妇吴春霞终于拿到了河南省高级人民法院的二审终审判决书。判决书认定，周口警方在没有相应精神病司法医学鉴定的情况下，将吴春霞送往河南省精神病院，事实依据和法律依据不充分，依法被确定违法。[查看全文]

Court rules Wu Chunxia held illegally in mental asylum for 132 days

No apology, no explanation and no compensation have been received from the police after her high-profile court victory, a petitioner whose experiences mirrored the plot of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest told the Global Times on Thursday.

Wu Chunxia, 40, is demanding the police bureau of Zhoukou, a Central China city in Henan Province, explain exactly why she was detained for 132 days in 2008 at a mental asylum without undergoing a single psychiatric test.

"I will consult with my lawyers and seek an explanation from the police bureau," Wu said, still celebrating her shock victory on Wednesday at the Henan High People's Court in Zhengzhou.

"Although the court postponed the ruling for months after it went to trial in July last year, I'm still happy to see the verdict," Wu said.

The delay suggested the high court was under pressure, said Wu's Beijing-based lawyer Wang Yongjie.

"China's courts have less independence because their personnel and financial resources depend on local governments, which is the reason why lawsuits involving citizens suing authorities have always been difficult to deal with," Wang told the Global Times on Thursday.

Wu would be demanding an apology from the police and compensation based on the ruling, Wang said.

"The policemen responsible for the illegal behavior should also be held accountable," he said.

Wu was first intercepted in April 2008 by Zhoukou police traveling to Beijing to petition the All-China Women's Federation for help with her abusive marriage.

Zhoukou police officers seized her again at a divorce hearing in the Shabei district court in Zhoukou on July 16, 2008. She was detained for 10 days and sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor."

Instead of going to labor camp as sentenced, Wu was sent north to Henan Provincial Mental Hospital in the city of Xinxiang, where she was treated for paranoid schizophrenia.

Staff placed electrodes on her scalp three times a week and force-fed her pills, Wu told media.

"I gained more than 20 kilograms and started to suffer from hypertension and high cholesterol," Wu, now divorced, told The Beijing Times, "and I may have become infertile.

"The hospital and the police claimed that I had a mental illness without any diagnosis, and the symptoms they wrote down were 'running around and petitioning for three years.'"

Wu in 2009 sued the hospital and the neighborhood officials who reported her and assisted police in putting her in hospital. She received 145,000 yuan ($232,00) compensation in 2012.

She then started to sue the police, first at Zhoukou intermediate people's court and then at the provincial capital's high court.

"Wu's experience reveals the police have too much power in detaining people without legal grounds, which can lead to abuse, and their authority should be restricted," Wang said.