BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese court has jailed six people for up to 11 years for the abuse of a woman whose appearance last year in an online video chained by the neck sparked a public outcry and calls for the better protection of women.
The video, which surfaced in January last year, showed the woman in an apparently confused state in the eastern province of Jiangsu. It was seen by millions, stirring debate about the treatment of women and in particular the trafficking of brides in rural areas.
A man called Dong Zhimin had bought the woman for 5,000 yuan ($727.26) and had kept her chained up in a room without sun, electricity, and running water since 2017, the Jiangsu Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement on Friday.
Dong was jailed for nine years on Thursday for abuse and illegal imprisonment, the court said.
The woman, who suffered from schizophrenia, had been sold twice bfore ending up with Dong. She had eight children during her time with Dong from 1999-2020, the court said.
Another five people who bought and sold her were jailed for eight to 11 years for trafficking women, the court said.
(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo)
