China's top court overturned the death sentences for two suspects in a famous kidnapping and rape case, stirring the emotions of the public and causing them to question the integrity of their judicial system.

Tang Hui, the mother of the then-11-year-old victim, was first known by the public in August 2012 when she was sentenced to serve in a Hunan labor camp for one and a half years for disrupting "social order." In June of the same year, seven men had been charged with kidnapping and raping Tang's daughter and were found guilty, The Wall Street Journal detailed.

Like Us on Facebook

Two of the suspects were given death sentences; four of them were given a life sentence, and the other one received 15 years' jail time. Tang had continued to rally for a more severe punishment for the perpetrators, but she was sent to labor camp because of her outspokenness and was only released when the public vehemently demanded the government do so.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court has overturned the death sentences for the two suspects who had been found guilty of rape and sentenced to execution. According to the People's Daily, they had also been found guilty of organizing prostitution but their cases will be retried in a higher court in Hunan.

Based on a report from the state-run Xinhua news agency, a Supreme Court official explained that it was still unclear if they had used violence to coerce the victim, except for one incident in which the girl was hit in the face for refusing to work as a prostitute. The death penalty, therefore, was "inappropriate," the official said.

Tang said in a phone interview that she felt "devastated" about the court's ruling. It had taken them eight years to win the case and a retrial would subject her daughter to go through a painful process all over again.

The victim is now 18 years old and lives with her mother in Hunan. She had been regularly beaten up by the perpetrators and forced to cater to four to five clients every day.

On Thursday, the case became the fourth most searched-for term on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, with many of them expressing their anger at the new verdict.

One microblogger said the judge who gave the ruling had "a brain like a pig's" and that the whole country is monitoring the case. China University of Politics and Law scholar Zhu Wei explained that an 11-year-old child is not capable of deciding for herself whether or not to enter prostitution, and even questioned why the death penalty cannot be applied in this case.

Others, however, blamed Tang and the media for botching the public view of the case. Leftist Du Jianguo called the girl's mother "shrew" for twisting up the stories and the media for its lack of "conscience."

Tang's labor camp detention in 2012 ignited a firestorm online and in legal circles over China's labor system, in which people can be jailed for up to four years without a formal trial. In November that year, the Communist Party had vowed to shut down the labor camps.

For now, Tang said she just wants her daughter to live a normal life. But with the recent development in the rape case, she now thinks that would be impossible.

TagsKidnapping, Rape, overturned, Death Sentence, public fury, Hunan