Detained for premier petition

A villager in Yiliang county, Yunnan Province, who kowtowed in front of Premier Wen Jiabao to draw attention to a land expropriation dispute during his inspection of earthquake relief in September, was released Tuesday after a day's detention by local police.

Liang Yonglan, 29, who led other villagers to petition Wen during his visit on September 8, was given a seven-day administrative detention Monday evening for "disturbing social order."

She was released immediately after her husband posted a 1,000-yuan ($160.5) bond Tuesday, caixin.com reported.

It is unclear why Liang was detained more than two months after Wen's visit.

Premier Wen visited the disaster-struck area on September 8, one day after an earthquake measuring 5.7-magnitude rattled the region.

The county's police said Liang, along with three other villagers, kneeled at a crossroad in Fajie village, congesting traffic for over 20 minutes and causing "serious political and social consequences," as Wen got out of his car to shake hands with villagers and inquiry about how they were coping.

Sun Bangjian, another petitioner, said that dozens of villagers took part in the silent protest that lasted only three minutes and did not cause trouble.

The 0.67-square-kilometer land acquisition involves more than 2,000 villagers.

The township government expropriated the land and allowed the construction of a new coal cleaning plant that severely affected the nearby farm plots, caixin said.

A media officer with the county government, surnamed Pan, told the Global Times Wednesday that local police tried to detain the other three who led the petition, but could not find them.

"Liang's husband applied for the temporary release of Liang, who cares for a family elder," Pan said, adding that after the incident during Wen's visit, provincial disciplinary inspectors were sent to the county to investigate the dispute, but the villagers did not tell the truth.

Village head, Xiao Guoxian, told the Global Times that villagers were telling the truth and that their lives had been affected by the coal plant's operation.

The city police of Zhaotong are probing the case, said Pan.

"Liang might return to detention, but the county police's decision might be revoked if the investigation proves her innocent," Pan added.

Calls to the county police went unanswered, while the city police turned down interview requests from the Global Times.