The Hunan Reeducation-through-labor Management Committee Wednesday said it will review the 18-month detention order of a mother who pestered officials to deliver justice to a gang that had forced her daughter into prostitution six years ago.

Tang Hui, whose daughter was 11 when she was abducted in Yongzhou, was sent to a reeducation-through-labor center on August 2. The administrative order by local authorities accused Tang of causing a disturbance by confronting local officials and petitioning the local court for tougher sentences that had been handed to five of seven men found guilty in the case. Two of the men have been sentenced to death.

Gan Yuanchun, Tang's attorney, said that Yongzhou police exaggerated Tang's activities. Gan said Tang wept by the side door of Hunan Provincial Public Security Department, which police described as disturbing their work.

The application to free Tang said local authorities had abused their power to detain someone under reeducation-through-labor regulations, failing to hold a hearing prior to issuing the detention order, and unreasonably using the reeducation-through-labor system.

"An official from the office of legislative affairs in Yongzhou Public Security Bureau insisted their decision to send Tang to a reeducation-through-labor center was correct," Gan told the Global Times.

Gan said an officer said Tang had not disagreed with the detention order when she was first told of it.

"The only possible reason Tang did not react to the detention decision was that she had a sense it would be the result," said Gan.

Calls to Yongzhou Public Security Bureau went unanswered Wednesday.

"Usually, the application takes 60 days to have a response from the authorities," said another of Tang's lawyers Hu Yihua. "We could receive an answer in less time, since there is a lot of public pressure and the government has announced that it will handle the case according to law."