Metro leaflet pair jailed

A couple who used their three young children and employed three others to hand out advertising leaflets in Metro stations and beat security guards were each sentenced to eight months in jail and fined 2,000 yuan (US$285), the Shanghai Railway Transport Procuratorate said on Monday.

This was the city's first case of its kind, prosecutors said, in which minors were organized to hand out leaflets and attack others, and was considered the crime of organizing minors to violate security administration.

They said husband and wife Yin and Shi employed teenagers Yan, Li and Wen and took them to Metro stations to hand out leaflets along with their three children. The couple told the juveniles that when they met security guards, they could attack them and run away.

Shi was in charge of taking the teenagers to Metro stations and obstructing security guards, while Yin watched the children, helping them to flee the scene when necessary.

Between July and August last year, the group fought with Metro security guards five times, injuring two guards and a passenger.

Prosecutors also said that Yan, a classmate of one of the couple's children, had been beaten and abused by Yin.