6 sentenced for involvement in trafficking woman

Six people involved in a high-profile case of a human trafficking victim who was confined with an iron chain around her neck have received prison sentences for multiple crimes by a court in Jiangsu province on Friday.

In January 2022, video footage of the chained and mentally ill woman being held in a dilapidated hut in Fengxian county in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, went viral online after being posted on Chinese social media platforms, shocking the public.

Police confirmed that the woman's name is Xiaohuamei, which translates as "little plum blossom", and that she is from Yunnan province.

Authorities in Jiangsu also determined that the woman, who has eight children, is a victim of human trafficking.

On Friday, the Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court announced prison sentences for six people involved in the case and disclosed more details about it.

Dong Zhimin, who tied Xiaohuamei up with ropes and iron, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for the crime of maltreatment, as well as an additional three years for her unlawful detention, according to the court's ruling.

The court also handed down sentences ranging from eight to 13 years as well as fines to five other defendants - Shi Lizhong, Sang Heniu, Tan Aiqing, Huo Yongqu and Huo Fude - for the crime of trafficking women.

The court's investigation found that Shi and Sang first abducted Xiaohuamei from Yagu, a village in Yunan, in early 1998, and brought her to Donghai county in Jiangsu. Then they sold her to a man surnamed Xu for 5,000 yuan ($727).

She disappeared in May in 1998 after living with Xu for about five months, the court said.

She was discovered by Tan and his wife, surnamed Li, in Xiayi county, Henan province, in June that year. The couple then sold her to Huo Yongqu and Huo Fude for 3,000 yuan, the court said.

Huo Yongqu and Huo Fude took Xiaohuamei to Fengxian and sold her to Dong and his father, who has since died, it added.

According to the court, she was able to take care of herself and speak with others when she first arrived at Dong's home, but sometimes she had a dull look in her eyes and made silly smiles, evidence of her mental illness.

In 1999, Dong and Xiaohuamei had their first child. They went on to have seven more children from 2011 to 2020, the court said.

Her mental disorder grew worse after giving birth to their second and third children in 2011 and 2012, and by the time she had the sixth child in 2017, her condition had become much more serious, according to the court.

From July 2017 to the time the case was first reported, Dong used iron, strips of clothing and ropes to tie up, abuse and detain Xiaohuamei, it said, adding that she lived in squalor without water, electricity or sunlight and was poorly fed.

The court later determined that Xiaohuamei was schizophrenic.

"Dong Zhimin should be punished, as he seriously abused and unlawfully detained Xiaohuamei, making her mental disorder irreversible and causing her even more harm," the court said.

The five other defendants who trafficked the woman also deserved their sentences because their acts had a strong negative impact on her, it added.

It revealed that in total, seven people participated in the trafficking. Prosecutors in Xuzhou initiated prosecution against five of them after getting approval from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the country's top procuratorate, due to their bigger role in the crime, it said.

It was determined that the other two suspects, Xu and Li, played a minor role in the case, so they were not prosecuted, the court said.

Under the Chinese Criminal Law, a person convicted of trafficking women or children will face a sentence ranging from five to 10 years in prison. In more serious cases, the offender could even be sentenced to life imprisonment or even receive the death penalty.