China should include the compensation for mental suffering into its state compensation law, a lawmaker said at the ongoing annual session of the country's top legislature.

The current Law on State Compensation should be revised because of the absence of regulations on the compensation for mental suffering, said Hua Yan, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) from eastern Anhui Province.

Articles on compensation procedures and standards also need amendment, the deputy said.

Mental suffering caused by state infringement may result in more severe injury than that caused by civil violation, and a victim has the very right to demand state compensation for the suffering, the lawmaker said.

The current law only rules immaterial compensation such as apology and rehabilitation of reputation without material assistance, Hua said.

The lawmaker said a victim who suffered severe mental loss should be compensated materially in addition to an apology and rehabilitation.

She Xianglin, a man tortured into confessing a murder that he did not commit was compensated 450,000 yuan (US$55,500) in 2005 after wrongly serving 11 years in prison.

She, 39, was exonerated for the crime when his wife whom he was accused of murdering in 1994 suddenly appeared earlier last year.

His demand for compensation from mental suffering was rejected.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)