Man Returns After 23 Years in Prison to Discover Home Sold By Government

Man Returns After 23 Years in Prison to Discover Home Sold By Government
Oct 21, 2013 By eChinacities.com

A Shaanxi man was sentenced to life imprisonment when he was 22 years old but was released early after 23 years. Transitioning from prison life to the “outside world” is never easy, but this Shaanxi man had it particularly hard: after returning to his hometown, the man, now 45, discovered that his house had been sold off by the government, forcing him to live on the streets near the Baoji Train Station.

This man is named Jia Xinde, and is originally from Guchuan Village, Baoji County in Shaanxi Province. More than 20 years ago, Jia lived together with his father and mentally-retarded uncle in a three-roomed roofed house. In 1989, his father passed away when Jia himself was receiving treatment for an illness while in Xi’an; as a result, he did not know of his father’s death. Jia received a sentence of life imprisonment for having committed robbery in 1990 when he was 22 years-old and it was only in 1992 when he first heard of his father’s passing. In 2002 while serving his time, Jia’s sentence was reduced to 19 years due to good behavior. Several times during the years from 2005-2012, Jia’s sentence was again reduced even further. On August 14 of this year Jia had served out the entirety of his sentence – 23 years – and was released.

Having regained his freedom, he returned back to his home town. However, Jia saw that his broken-down three-roomed roofed house was nowhere to be seen; a new, small, white building stood in his former home’s place. The owner of the house is his neighbor from 23 years ago, a Mr Fan. Fan said that the government for the village of Guchuan sold his three-roomed house to him in 1993.

Jia inquired into this matter and a local government official answered his questions by saying that his father’s funeral had been taken care of by the village government as well as village committee. Because there was no one to take care of his uncle, he was sent to a nearby old age home. All this time, Jia had not kept up his obligations to maintain his family and its property. Additionally, due to the fact that his house had become dangerous from its disuse, the village government at the time decided to sell it to Jia’s neighbor.

The local government decided to give him 500 RMB in compensation, and allowed Jia to apply to the village committee for a plot of land. However, when Jia arrived at the offices for the household registry to make inquiries, Jia discovered that his household registry had been revoked in 1996. At present, the local office is trying to procure a new household permit for Jia; a new plot of residential land is to be divided for Jia’s use by the village committee.

If all goes to plan and no other major hurdles trip him up, Jia will hopefully have a home to call his own at long, long last.

Source: QQ

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Keywords: household registry village committee imprisoned to life imprisonment

2 Comments

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DaqingDevil

I think his hard luck started with a life sentence for robbery!!

Oct 22, 2013 08:42 Report Abuse

Feili

500RMB for a three room house??!!...hard luck..

Oct 21, 2013 19:08 Report Abuse