A Chinese internet user was taken to court Thursday by a unit of
the China People's Liberation Army (PLA) after he claimed on the
internet that a PLA official had ordered a local sauna to be
destroyed, Monday's Beijing-based Legal Daily reported.
Ji Shenghui, the accused netizen from north China's Hebei Province, posted a bulletin on a local
BBS under the name "Changjiang750" claiming that a PLA official
named Qin stationed in Shijiazhuang, capital city of Hebei, ordered
soldiers under his command to smash up a lavish sauna after he
broke a glass there and was charged 500 yuan (around US$62.5) for
it.
The bulletin did not say when the destruction of the sauna
occurred.
At a press conference Thursday, Wang Jushan, deputy director of
the political department of the PLA unit, said Ji's claim was
groundless slander, adding that the local police department had
confirmed there hadn’t been an incident at the sauna.
The sauna involved also denied any incident in a statement on
August 13 and reported the rumor to local police four days later.
Wang said the bulletin had done damage to the reputation of the PLA
and the official.
The bulletin has been removed from the local BBS but several
different versions of the story are still going the rounds among
Chinese net users.
The PLA unit demanded a public apology from Ji and 150,000 yuan
(US$18,750) to compensate the official for the mental suffering he
endured.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2006)