CHINA: FORMER DEATH ROW DUO AWARDED COMPENSATION

November 15, 2009: two wrongly condemned death row inmates were granted state compensation in China after they were found not guilty of heroin trafficking on appeal and set free in July.
Mo Weiqi was paid 50,507.49 yuan (US$7,398.20) while Xie Kaiqi received 48,491.67 yuan, China Youth Daily reported.
Mo was sentenced to death by the intermediate court of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture on September 17, 2008.
Mo appealed to Yunnan Higher People's Court eight days after his conviction, insisting that he had no idea about the heroin in his luggage.
Trafficker Xiong Zhengjiang was later seized and confessed to police that Mo and Xie had no idea about the narcotics hidden in their luggage.
The compensation was calculated based on last year's average daily income for domestic workers and the number of days Mo and Xie were in prison.
Mo had been jailed for 451 days and Xie had spent 433 days in a detention center. (Sources: Shanghai Daily, 16/11/2009)