CHINA: A Chinese man who spent 11 years in jail for murdering his wife, before the woman turned up alive and well earlier this year, is claiming hundreds of thousands of euro in compensation for his woes.
The case of She Xianglin, a 39-year-old former security guard from the central province of Hubei, is a bizarre episode that has caused major ripples in China, prompting outraged headlines about the country's criminal justice system and anger at police brutality.
Mr She was locked up after his wife, Zhang Zaiyu, vanished in 1994. The reasons why she left remain unclear, although some Chinese media report that Mr She was having an affair.
Three months after her disappearance, the heavily decomposed corpse of a woman was found near their village.
Mr She said police kept him awake for 11 days and nights, beating and torturing him until he confessed to the deed.
The local Jingshan County People's Court sentenced him to death for murder in 1998. This was later commuted to 15 years in jail by a higher court amid some concerns about the reliability of the evidence against him.
Then, suddenly, in March this year, Mr She's wife came back from the dead - very much alive and living with a new family in Shandong province.
Mr She was freed immediately, although his time in jail was nearly up anyway because of time off for good behaviour.
A broken man after over a decade in prison, Mr She is seeking €405,000 in compensation for torture, false confinement and economic loss.
He also wants the authorities to be held legally accountable.
"The compensation is based on She's mental injuries, restrictions of his freedom and infringements on his rights of life and health," Mr She's lawyer, Zhou Feng, told the China Daily newspaper. His eldest brother, She Suolin, was jailed for 41 days for speaking out on his brother's behalf and trying to launch an appeal.
And their mother was also arrested as well and died in 1996, a few months after being released from detention. Two witnesses for the defence were also jailed and all have filed a joint claim for state compensation.
There have been other high-profile stories lately about the use of torture leading to a miscarriage of justice. In Hebei province, Nie Shubing was executed in 1995 for raping and killing a woman after he confessed under torture.
His innocence was discovered last month when the real killer was arrested for other crimes.