After spending just over 10 years on filing complaints over a court ruling on criminal charges, 55-year-old Zhang Yaodong believed he was close to success when his sister called one morning in November. But the short distance between Beijing and his Henan home turned out to be deadly for the petitioner.

Zhang, who was at a government petitioner's office in Beijing at the time, received a phone call from his older sister who said that the local court had promised to address his petition. He packed his bags and boarded a van back to his hometown in Pingdingshan Prefecture, Henan Province.