[Fuqing Bombing Case] In this article, Xin Chen, who attended the court proceedings, recounts what happened in court as well as the case history. On June 24, 2001, a bombing occurred in front of the Fuqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection. Wu Zhangxiong, a driver for the commission, was killed. Wu Changlong and Chen Keyun were arrested and charged with bombing (爆炸罪); Du Jiesheng, Tan Minhua, and Wang Xiaogang were arrested and charged with illegally buying and selling explosive materials (非法买卖爆炸物品罪); and Xie Qing was arrested and charged with perjury (伪证罪). In December 2004, Wu Changlong and Chen Keyun were sentenced by the Fuzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court to death with two years suspension; Du Jiesheng and Tan Minhua were each sentenced to nine years in prison; and Xie Qing was sentenced to three years imprisonment. Wang Xiaogang, who was charged with and tried for providing the detonator, was acquitted. After an appeal by all the convicted defendants in December 2005, Fujian Provincial Higher People’s Court ruled that for all of the appellants, “the facts are unclear in the original verdict and the evidence is insufficient. The Fuzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court’s decision is repealed and remanded [to the original court for retrial].” In October 2006, the Fuzhou Municipal Intermediate People’s Court ruled again, Chen Keyun and Wu Changlong were again sentenced to death with two years of suspension; Du, Tan and Xie’s sentences were respectively reduced to seven years, six years, and two years. All five defendants appealed to the Fujian Provincial Higher People’s Court on the grounds that the evidence was obtained through torture, and they requested to have an evaluation of the injuries they sustained during torture. Chen Keyun made 693 requests for such an evaluation, but did not receive a response. After appealing their case for four-and-a-half years, the Fujian Provincial Higher People’s Court heard the case again on April 26, 2011. No ruling has been issued yet.
