"Elderly woman exonerated after being jailed for petitioning over land dispute in China", 12 Jun 2018

An elderly woman in southern China was exonerated eight years after being jailed for petitioning over a land dispute, in a rare court ruling in favour of a petitioner…

Guangdong’s high court said Zeng Xiuzhen, 72, had been acting within her rights when she complained about the compensation she had been offered from the buyers of her land, and it overturned a lower-court ruling convicting her for “extorting” money from them…in recent years, and hundreds of petitioners have been found guilty of extortion after receiving compensation payments, usually from local authorities, when their land was sold for development.

…Zeng began lodging official complaints in 2006 after her land was sold by the village government – a deal she said was done illegally by local officials. But her petitioning came to an end when she was found guilty by a court in Huizhou of accepting 150,000 yuan (US$23,400) in compensation for her land...