Chinese mine manager jailed in Rwanda for torture

Shjun Sun says he beat the workers because he was ‘frustrated and fed up of them constantly stealing minerals’.

A Chinese national has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for torturing local mine workers in Rwanda after a video showing him whipping a man tied to a post went viral on social media.

Shjun Sun, the manager of a mine in the west of the country, was convicted on Tuesday along with an accomplice following his arrest in September last year.

“It is clear that Mr Shjun tortured the victims and issued corporal punishment with malicious intent, and this is a grave crime,” judge Jacques Kanyarukiga ruled, ordering him to serve a 20-year term in prison.

Shjun acknowledged assaulting two workers, saying he beat them because he was “frustrated and fed up of them constantly stealing minerals”.

A 45-second clip showing a Chinese man using a rope to flog a man huddled on the ground and tied to a pole. The mine produces cassiterite, a mineral that is the main ore of tin.

AFP