Photo of Batu Menghe

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have launched an investigation into the case of a man who never went to prison despite being sentenced to 15 years after being convicted of murder in 1992, which has prompted an avalanche of criticism on social media where users gave a sarcastic name for the case - "serving a sentence on (legal) paper."

The case was first brought to the public by Han Jie, 74, whose son Bai Yongchun was stabbed to death by  Batu Menghe on May 12, 1992. But the murderer  was never jailed for his crime and smoothly received his "certificate of release" in 2007 after 15 years of "serving a sentence" outside of prison.

After being "released," Batu started his career as the village official, joined the Party and was even elected as the people's congress deputy of the local banner, according to Han. 

Han had been reporting Batu's case to local authorities over the years and they finally put him in custody in 2017 for "illegally being out of jail." 

A police officer who handled the case told the Global Times that Batu had been detained at the local police station for more than 500 days after committing the crime; But after the sentence was announced, Batu left the police station on parole for medical treatment of nephritis and never came back. 

Batu's request for parole over medical treatment was found to have not conformed to local regulations back then and he received a new sentence of 13 years and seven months after the court recalculated his penalty term. 

The police officer dismissed rumors that Batu was busted due to corruption, saying that his corrupt behavior was discovered after he was arrested. 

Meanwhile, the case has sparked huge criticism on social media, where netizens slammed local authorities for potential judicial corruption and questioned the credibility of the local government over how the convict could not only get away with the crime. 

"How was his background check approved when he was elected as the people's congress deputy? How many people were behind the scenes thrusting him into the position?" One netizen asked on Sina Weibo. 

Some others wondered if Batu's case was not isolated in the region or even across the country. 

"Without the insistence of the victim's family for more than 20 years, the case might have been silenced forever. The next question should be how many silent criminals like Batu are still at large," said another Weibo user. 

Global Times