Two men who were wrongly jailed for almost a decade have submitted an application to be compensated a total of 7.02 million yuan ($1.1 million) to the Higher People's Court in East China's Zhejiang Province.

On March 26, the court declared Zhang Gaoping and his nephew Zhang Hui innocent of the rape accusation they were jailed for in 2003 because of insufficient evidence. 

The application for compensation has been submitted, said court officials, adding that the court would handle the case in accordance with the law so that the two men could get their lives back to normal as soon as possible.

Zhang Gaofa, elder brother of Zhang Gaoping, said the sum was reasonable. It includes State compensations and other subsidies for the number of years spent in jail.

According to a list presented by the elder brother, 2.8 million yuan was for a loss of income, 1.8 million yuan for moral damages, as well as other items, such as pensions and medical insurance, as well as family welfare, the Anhui Province-based Star News reported Saturday.

"We asked our lawyer Ruan Fangmin to submit the application to the higher court," Zhang Gaofa told the Star News, adding that the lawyer told him that the compensation amount was actually low.

After their acquittal, the higher court notified the two of their lawful right to seek compensation from authorities. On April 16, Zhang Gaofa visited the court again to exchange views on compensation with judges, but they did not give him a definite amount to aim for.

The compensation demand is much higher than the 650,000 yuan of State compensation given to another wrongly convicted man, Zhao Zuohai, a farmer in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, in 2010.

Zhao served 11 years in prison for murder. However, the man he was alleged to have murdered turned up alive. Zhao was released in May 2010 and said the police tortured him into confessing.

According to court hearings, on the night of May 18, 2003, Zhang Gaoping and Zhang Hui gave a ride to a 17-year-old woman surnamed Wang when they were transporting freight to the provincial capital Hangzhou. The woman was found dead the next day.

Police detained the pair on May 23, 2003, as suspects in Wang's death, but failed to provide physical evidence to bring charges against them. Under pressure, Zhang Gaoping said they were forced to confess to the crime of rape during police interrogations.

In 2011, Hangzhou authorities began to recheck the rape case, discovering that the DNA data collected from Wang's nails was highly consistent with a cab driver already executed for murdering another young woman in 2004.

Global Times - Xinhua