'Whimsical' rape creates 'temporary' craze
- Source: Global Times
- [01:18 November 17 2009]
- Comments
As the catchphrase began morphing into gags like "temporary burglary", "temporary bribe taking" and "temporary murder", law professors urged clearer knowledge of the background and details of each case before joining in the online rush to judgment.
"In Chinese criminal law practice, it's common to distinguish premeditated crimes from crimes committed out of a temporary impulse," said Ruan Qilin, a criminal law professor at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.
"And apparently the latter category embraces lower subjective malignance. So it's not a fresh thing to see words such as 'temporary' in the verdict."
The core of the case, Ruan told the Global Times, is whether the crime can be classified as "gang rape". That is what determines whether or not the penalty is improper, he said.
The original "soft" verdict didn't classify the crime as gang rape as the court held there was no premeditation. Hence the peculiar legal concept: "rape on a whim".
Retrial
For the retrial, if their crime is upgraded to gang rape, a conviction will lead to at least a 10-year jail term. Otherwise, three years might still be the correct legal judgment.
This kind of logic earned a landslide of negative reaction from China's disgruntled Internet users.
"It's a judgment made on a whim by a temporary court under temporary circumstances," wrote one web user nicknamed "Qixi Mianhuatang" on the online forum.
