By ReutersBEIJING - A Beijing court has sentenced 10 people to up to 18 months in jail for illegally detaining petitioners from another city, state media reported on Sunday, in a rare case of the judiciary taking on the shadowy men who operate on the margins of the law.
Those convicted were hired by authorities from Changge city in central Henan province to stop petitioners airing their grievances in Beijing, the People's Daily said on its website, citing a Beijing newspaper.
They held them in rented houses in a Beijing suburb where the petitioners said they were beaten, the report said. (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120212_china-petitioner-606a.photoblog600.jpg)Alexander F. Yuan / APA petitioner from southern China's Hunan province rests on a bed of a rental room that was raided by unidentified men a week ago, on the outskirts of Beijing on Nov. 6. The woman has been petitioning to draw central government attention to get back her compensation from local government after a forced home relocation. The men wore badges identifying them as employees of the Beijing representative office of the Changge government, it added.
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