CHINA’S highest court overturned a death sentence and ordered a retrial for a woman who killed and dismembered her abusive husband, a ruling welcomed yesterday by advocates of the country’s often-silent victims of domestic violence.

The woman’s attorney Guo Jianmei said she received confirmation from the Supreme People’s Court, the country’s highest court, about its ruling in the case of Li Yan, who had been sentenced to death in 2011 for slaying her husband.

The decision “will have an exemplary effect” on similar future lawsuits, Guo said, as it might be the first case in China to overturn capital punishment for the killing of a domestic abuser.

“It means domestic violence cases, especially those in which violence is used to counter violence, will receive greater attention from various parties, especially the courts,” said Guo, a pro bono lawyer who specializes in women’s rights.

Feng Yuan, a Beijing women’s rights activist, called the court ruling a “positive development,” which offered hope to all victims of domestic abuse.

She said that during the retrial she hopes “the court makes a fair ruling that considers the whole picture of domestic abuse and not just the violent incident, so that it gives victims of domestic abuse a glimmer of hope.”

The high court’s ruling means Li will likely be spared execution after a retrial, a significant victory for the hundreds of lawyers, intellectuals and activists who signed a petition early last year urging the court to reject the penalty.

Li’s younger brother Li Dehuai also said yesterday his sister wrote to him about the ruling in a letter he received on Monday.

“The court is overturning the sentence because the facts are unclear and the evidence is ambiguous,” Li Dehuai said.

A judge “said the case was sent back to Sichuan to be reheard,” he said, referring to the province where the original sentence was issued.

The outcome of Li’s retrial is hard to predict, but it is highly unlikely the Sichuan provincial court will sentence her to death again, Guo said.

Li, 43, was sentenced to death in 2012 for killing her husband Tan Yong. Tan had physically, sexually and verbally abused Li for more than three years, burning her with cigarettes and cutting off one of her fingers, Guo said.

In November 2010 he attacked her with an air gun but she grabbed it from him and used the butt of the weapon to kill him. She then cut up his body and boiled the parts, perhaps in an effort to dispose of them.

Those who supported Li said she deserved leniency because of the repeated abuse she had suffered, and her sense of desperation after attempts to seek help from police and a government-run women’s group were unsuccessful.