Tang Hui to get compensation for sentence after demanding stricter penalty for men who raped her 11-year-old daughter

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

A woman who became a symbol for the groundswell of opposition to China's labour camp system has scored a rare victory in an appeal for compensation in a case that generated a huge public outcry.

The Hunan provincial people's high court ruled in favour of Tang Hui, who last year was sentenced to 18 months in a labour camp for petitioning for harsher penalties for the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter.

At the time, Tang's case drew huge public opposition and she was released within days.

The labour camp – or "re-education through labour" – system was established to punish early critics of the Communist party but now is used by regional officials to deal with people challenging their authority on issues including land rights and corruption.

Cases like Tang's last year have galvanised critics, many of them within the government, and public expectations for reform have grown.

In January, Tang sued the labour commission of the city of Yongzhou for an apology and compensation but the lawsuit was rejected four months later. She then appealed to the provincial court.

On Monday, the court ordered the labour commission to pay Tang 2,941 yuan (£318) for violating her personal freedom and causing mental damage, Tang's lawyers said.

Tang could not immediately be reached for comment as calls to her mobile phone rang unanswered. One of her lawyers, Xu Liping, said Tang had accepted the ruling and that to a large extent it offered comfort to her.

"To Tang Hui, this is a relatively big turning point for her. Now she can start to regain a normal life," Xu said.

Tang's other lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, said the lawsuit's significance was limited because it was focused on obtaining compensation rather than questioning the legality of the labour camp sentence she had been given.

The ruling also came across as the court's tacit acknowledgment that Tang's case was particularly egregious, said Zhang Ming, a China politics professor at Renmin University.

"For people like Tang Hui, it is totally unfair. Her daughter had been through a horrible experience, and you send her to labour camp? It can't be justified," Zhang said.

The court, however, ruled that Tang's request for a written apology from the Yongzhou labour commission could not be granted because there was no legal basis for it.

This could be a strategy for the authorities to avoid acknowledging wrongdoing, Zhang said. "Even if the labour committee lost this lawsuit, it doesn't mean they're admitting that they were wrong," he said.