A Chinese businessman who was wrongly convicted of murder is now offering a substantial reward to help find the real culprit. Chen Shijiang, 49, from eastern China's Shandong province, spent several years in prison for a crime he did not commit. After a long legal battle, he successfully proved his innocence and was released. Determined to seek justice, Chen has now taken to social media to announce a 500,000-yuan (approximately Rs 60 lakh) bounty for anyone who can provide credible information that leads to the arrest of the actual killer.
According to South China Morning Post, in 1998, at the age of 22, Chen was wrongly convicted of killing a woman in his village. The 56-year-old victim was the wife of a cash keeper for the village government. Chen was accused of killing her to steal money for a furniture factory he was planning to open.
Chen said he was tortured by the police to confess to the crime, but the court did not believe him. He appealed two times. The first two verdicts sentenced him to death, and the third and last one gave him life in prison. At the time of the crime, Chen was a successful businessman, and he refused to accept the verdict. He kept fighting for justice, along with his mother.
Eventually, a provincial court held a retrial in 2006 and recognised there were many questionable aspects about the case. For instance, at the time the victim died, Chen had an alibi, his clothes had no blood on them, and the murder weapon has never been found, as per the news outlet.
Chen was declared innocent and released. He received 197,000 yuan (US$27,000) in compensation. Chen said he had a hard time re-establishing his reputation after he got out of jail, but he said he would survive, just like he survived prison life.
"I must get rid of my past," he said. Chen made a comeback in the business world in 2019, when a toilet he invented received many design awards. He is now the owner of a smart toilet company.
Speaking of his dedication to his business, Chen said, "I need to prove that I am a good person, a businessman that sees his career as his life." Chen now lives an affluent life but is determined to find the real killer.
