Interpretation of the ＂child bride＂ incident in Wushan, Chongqing Expert： The police are suspected of dereliction of duty.
People’s Daily Online, Beijing, May 27 (Reporter Liu Rong) More than 10 years ago, Ma Panyan’s three sisters in Shuanglong Town, Wushan County, Chongqing were sold as "child brides" by their guardians, and they failed to escape many times and gave birth to their children one after another. In 2016, Ma Panyan, who was only 28 years old but had a 14-year-old daughter, sued for divorce and hoped to investigate the legal responsibility of the "husband" for raping himself when he was a young girl, but was told by the police station that the case had passed the prosecution period.
The matter was reported by the Beijing media and quickly attracted public attention. Whether Ma Panyan’s marriage is legal or not, can the problem of "husband" or even "child bride" be solved within the existing legal framework? Some lawyers told reporters that this report was forwarded to the peer group in the industry early yesterday morning and caused a lot of discussion.
Fact: 12Married at the age of 14.The birth of a child at the age of 18 is not accepted by the police station as a marital matter.
According to current reports, in 2000, only 12-year-old Ma Panyan was "married" to 29-year-old Chen student by her then guardian and great uncle Ma Zhengsong. Ma Panyan said that Ma Zhengsong got 3,000 yuan in alimony in this transaction, while her husband’s family said that she gave 7,000 yuan and 500 kilograms of rice, but both sides had no objection to the fact that the marriage had property exchange.
After the "marriage" passed, Ma Panyan was forced to have sex with Chen students and was beaten. She went to the Shuanglong Town Police Station to report the case, but the police station learned from Ma Zhengsong that she had married the Chen family and thought that the matter was a family dispute, so it was not accepted.
Lawyer’s opinion: The police involved are suspected of dereliction of duty.
Xu Xilong, a criminal law expert and lawyer, believes that according to Article 236 of the current criminal law, no matter what reason you have sex with a "child bride" under the age of 14, you will be severely punished for rape. Ma Panyan was only 12 years old in 2000, 17 years older than her. Chen Mou forced her to have sex with her and was suspected of rape. When Ma Panyan reported to the police station for help, she was sent out, so this was a "family dispute".
"In judicial practice, even ‘ Marital rape ’ Some were sentenced, not to mention that Ma Yanyan was just a young girl who needed special protection at that time? " He pointed out.
Professor Zhang Jianwei, vice president of Tsinghua University Law School, holds a similar view. He thinks that the public security organs should start the procedure of accountability, and pursue the responsibility of those who should have filed a case at the beginning but did not file a case, thus causing the victims to continue to suffer.
Fact: I hope to rebuild my family, but I find myself "married"
Ma Panyan, who returned to her "home" because she failed to report the case, was repeatedly beaten and placed under house arrest. She failed to escape three times in a row and gave birth to a daughter and a son in 2002 and 2007 respectively. It was not until the fourth escape in 2008 that she regained her freedom because she had given birth to her son and was considered by her husband’s family to "complete the task" and no longer forcibly recovered it.
Ma Panyan, who hopes to re-establish her family, discovered in 2011 that her original de facto marriage did not know when she became a legal title: the file shows that she registered marriage with her "husband" Chen student at the age of 20 in 2008, but she said that she had never gone through any formalities or signed any documents.
On May 4, 2016, Ma Panyan formally filed a lawsuit in Wushan County People’s Court, asking the court to decide that she divorced Chen.
Expert opinion: should we choose divorce or advocate the invalidation of marriage? at variance
Professor Zhang Jianwei believes that this kind of "marriage" does not meet the conditions of legal marriage, and Ma Panyan should directly claim that the marriage is invalid to the civil affairs department. Xu Xilong also believes that the relevant departments should thoroughly investigate the responsible person and cancel this illegal marriage registration procedure, but for children born out of wedlock, Ma Panyan still has the legal obligation to support them.
Yang Xiaolin, a partner of Tianchi Hongfan Law Firm and a lawyer specializing in marriage and family law, believes from the operational level that Ma Panyan should still go through the divorce procedure: "In the practice of marriage law, the revocable marriage is usually only when the abducted woman is coerced into marriage, and then she returns home after being rescued by the public security organ, and proposes to cancel it within one year."
He pointed out that the defects in the marriage registration procedure in practice are quite common, and it is difficult to claim that the marriage is invalid. In particular, Ma Panyan found out that she was "married" a few years ago, but did not immediately propose to cancel it. If she enters the administrative reconsideration or judicial procedure, this may be regarded as an approval of the marriage facts. "It is difficult to win by suing the original marriage registration authority."
Fact: 16Rape was prosecuted again years later, and the police said that the statute of limitations had expired.
After many years of wandering and working outside, Ma Panyan was helped by social workers and reunited with her long-lost mother, determined to face her unresolved problems again.
On May 4, 2016, she reported the case to the Shuanglong Town Police Station again, accusing Chen students of forcibly having sex with them when they were underage, which was a rape of a young girl. However, the police at the police station told her that the maximum prosecution period for rape is only 10 years. Ma Yanyan is 28 years old this year and should have exceeded the prosecution period, so she will not file a case.
Lawyer’s opinion: The limitation of action is not calculated in this way.
On this issue, several legal experts hold almost identical positions: Ma Panyan’s case has not passed the prosecution period.
"Paragraph 2 of Article 88 of the Criminal Law stipulates that if the victim files a complaint within the time limit for prosecution, the people’s court, the people’s procuratorate and the public security organ shall file a case but not file it, and it is not limited by the time limit for prosecution. The report filed by Ma Yanyan in 2000 was exactly the case that the public security organ did not file a case when filing a case, and it was not limited by the time limit for prosecution according to law. " Xu Xilong said.
He also cited the first paragraph of Article 89 of the next Criminal Law, arguing that Ma Panyan’s state of coercion and infringement by her "husband" continued in the following years, and the statute of limitations for persistent crimes began from the date of the end of the crime.
Professor Zhang Jianwei believes that Ma Panyan was a minor when she was infringed, and her personal freedom was deprived for a long time, so she could not exercise her litigation rights by herself. Therefore, when calculating the limitation of action, the period when she could not exercise her rights should be deducted reasonably.
Xu Xilong further pointed out that when Ma Panyan’s uncle "married" Ma’s three sisters, they all got money from each other, and they were suspected of illegally profiting from it. They were suspected of abducting and selling women and children and should be held accountable.
