A 19-year-old college student who cut his girlfriend's face using a piece of broken glass following their break up, was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a four year suspended sentence last week.

The Jinchang District People's Court in Jiangsu province's Suzhou handed down the sentence on the charge of inflicting intentional injury. The defendant's 17-year-old girlfriend suffered three cuts on her cheeks between 4.3 and 7.5 centimeters long.

The court also issued an injunction barring the defendant from being close to his victim or her relatives during the period of the suspended sentence, said Zhang Jie, the judge who handled the case.

An injunction is a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing specific acts. According to Zhang Jie, there are three types of restraining order in China's legal system barring defendants from committing certain acts, from being near certain people, or from being in certain locations.

"There was a relationship involved in this case and it caused the plaintiff psychological damage, so it is just there should be a prohibitive remedy," said Zhang.

The judge also ordered the defendant to pay 100,000 yuan compensation to his victim, who was taken to a plastic surgery hospital following the attack.