“One-Yuan RTL Case” Is a Shame to the Rule of Law (Excerpts)

• Author: Liao Dekai

Almost an entire year after failing to buy Beijing public bus passes each costed one yuan, three residents of Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province have been sentenced to a year of reeducation through labor (RTL) by the RTL department in Changzhou City. Refusing to accept the sentence of RTL, the three residents filed an administrative litigation. They lost both the litigation and the subsequent appeal. Many legal scholars are shocked after studying the case in detail, and believe that many aspects of how the Changzhou police department and courts handled this case are legally challengeable.

This case, which netizens refer to as the “one-yuan RTL case,” is far from complicated. According to police records, three residents of Changzhou City went to Beijing to petition against a government decision and rode the Route 14 bus. The driver reported the fact that some passengers were petitioners to the police, and the bus was stopped for an hour. Just short of one year after the incident, the Changzhou police sentenced the three residents to RTL for riding a bus without paying bus fare, and causing the Route 14 bus to stop for one hour. The only prosecution evidence is the bus driver’s written testimony given without his appearance in court for cross-examination.

Who has ever before heard of people being sentenced to RTL for sneaking on a bus without paying...