Campaigning mother freed

Chinese authorities have released a woman sent to a labour camp for challenging the sentences handed down to the men who abducted, raped and prostituted her 11-year-old daughter.

Tang Hui was ordered last week to serve 18 months in a labour camp for “disturbing social order and exerting a negative impact on society”.

The crusading mother’s case has aroused widespread public outrage and thrown a spotlight on China’s controversial reeducation through labour camps.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Ms Tang was released yesterday morning.

It said Hunan provincial publicity authorities freed her so she could take care of her daughter, who is now 17, adding that authorities were also investigating Tang’s claim that police falsified evidence in her daughter’s case.