Yang Zongfa and his wife show a family photo in which his mother is sitting in the middle, in Liupanshui, Southwest China's Guizhou province, September 11, 2007.[Photo/IC]

In 1998, Yang Zongfa's mother was found dead by suffocation and dumped in a toilet. Yang, once involved in a lawsuit against his mother, became the first suspect. He, along with two of his family members, was later convicted of murder, despite a lack of evidence. The local media depicted the case as an unfilial son cruelly killing his mother, which created to public outrage towards the case. In 2007, after served nine years in prison, he was acquitted when a witness turned up and revealed the truth behind the case. Six members of Yang's family were arrested together at the time and they claimed the police used torture and other illegal measures to force confessions out of them. The family kept appealing and the case had been reheard more than ten times. Yang has been unable to stand up due to the alleged torture he suffered during the inquisition.