The Zhejiang Higher People's Court retried the 18-year-old Xiaoshan murder cases Tuesday in light of evidence that may acquit the five defendants.

One of the five defendents Tian Weidong opens his mouth with the tip of the tongue missing. [Beijing News]

From the beginning, all five defendants have maintained their innocence of the March 20, 1995 and August 12, 1995 robbery-murders of two cab drivers in the Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou. The men were convicted of the murders on December 29, 1997, despite their respective counsels' claims that the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence. The defendants were sentenced to death, with reprieve, or to life imprisonment.

In 2011, however, police found new evidence linking a different man, Xiang Shengyuan, to the crimes. His fingerprints matched the prints taken from the 1995 crime scene.

All of the five defendants claimed that they had been forced to make false confessions. The following is defendant Tian Weidong's recollection of his experience of being tortured, which was published on Tuesday's the Beijing News.

On November 28, 1995, Tian Weidong was arrested by Xianshan policemen. At the police station, he was asked to "confess the crime." While interrogating him, Tian claims three policemen slapped him in the face and kicked him, the newspaper said.

Tian said that the 1.8-meter tall police captain came in and grasped him by the neck and pushed him against the wall and said, "If you are still alive, come back for me. I am …"

Tian said he was punched and kicked until very late into that night. "My head is spinning and I start to lose consciousness," said Tian.

Feeling himself lose consciousness, Tian smashed his head into a glass door of the interrogation room. "A big hole like a football was knocked out of the glass door. I passed out on the spot."

Tian was sent to the hospital. After cleaning and bandaging, he was brought back to the interrogation room to suffer more beatings and electric shocks.

Police did not let Tian sleep,."When I fell asleep, they would give me a slap in the face," he said.

It was winter. He was stripped of almost all of his clothes and was handcuffed to a chair with only his underwear.

Around noon on November 29, Tian says that the torture became too much."I bit the tip of my tongue and swallowed it," Tian said. "This is the evidence that I was forced to confess."

Tian Weidong opened his mouth. One can see the tip of his tongue is missing.

He was again sent to the hospital and got five stitches in his tongue. After being brought back to the interrogation room, he was questioned again and again about the the details of the "criminal act."

On the third morning, he chewed the stitches in the tongue with his mouth full of blood. He recalled that each time his family met with his lawyer, they would ask whether Tian could still talk.

On November 30, Tian was sent to the Juhuashan prison. At Juhuashuan, Tian said, the torture device was a thin bamboo piece . "They use a bundle of bamboo piece to whip my legs. One whip will leave a number of bloodstains."

On December 5, he was transported to Sanbao prison of Hangzhou. There he was forced to drink dirty water that had been used to wash clothes. He was also kneed in the chest and finger-tapped on the head.

A young policeman used a stick wrapped in a towel to hit Tian's head until his head turned red and swollen.

Media have contacted Hangzhou police and Xiaoshan police numerous times about the alleged torture, but no reply has been received thus far.

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