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6 punished over beating of tourist
Source: Xinhua |
September 25, 2011, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SIX officials have been punished after a tourist traveling to Beijing was mistaken as a petitioner, brutally beaten and brought back to his home province, authorities said yesterday.
A district official in the city of Luoyang, Henan Province, visited the beaten tourist, Zhao Zhipei, at home and apologized after the incident triggered an outpouring of anger on the Internet over the treatment of petitioners.
Zhao was staying in a hotel close to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, the country's top complaint hearing office, on the night of September 15 when a group of people barged into the hotel room and dragged him, along with three petitioners from Henan, to a van heading for Luoyang.
Zhao was brutally beaten on the way back to Luoyang, officials said. Newspaper reports published a picture of an unconscious Zhao in rags lying by the roadside in Luoyang.
Local authorities yesterday said people at a Beijing security firm commissioned by Luoyang's letters and calls offices were responsible for the beating.
Yang Qi, a letters and calls office head, was fired. Another official at the office, Dong Xianwei, was suspended and four others received warnings, authorities said.
Police and prosecutors will further investigate the case, officials added.
In China, the department for letters and calls at various levels functions as a place to collect and report public grievances. Petitioners who find their complaints have not been dealt with fairly at the local level sometimes go to Beijing to file their complaints.
Cases of petitioners being rounded up and brought back to their home provinces are frequently reported by the media.
In January, Premier Wen Jiabao visited the State Bureau for Letters and Calls and asked officials to be responsible and dedicated to addressing people's complaints, as a channel for the public to criticize and supervise the government.
Wen was the country's first premier to visit the state complaints bureau to have face-to-face communication with petitioners. Wen told the bureau's workers to respond to complaints lawfully and with ardor.
A district official in the city of Luoyang, Henan Province, visited the beaten tourist, Zhao Zhipei, at home and apologized after the incident triggered an outpouring of anger on the Internet over the treatment of petitioners.
Zhao was staying in a hotel close to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, the country's top complaint hearing office, on the night of September 15 when a group of people barged into the hotel room and dragged him, along with three petitioners from Henan, to a van heading for Luoyang.
Zhao was brutally beaten on the way back to Luoyang, officials said. Newspaper reports published a picture of an unconscious Zhao in rags lying by the roadside in Luoyang.
Local authorities yesterday said people at a Beijing security firm commissioned by Luoyang's letters and calls offices were responsible for the beating.
Yang Qi, a letters and calls office head, was fired. Another official at the office, Dong Xianwei, was suspended and four others received warnings, authorities said.
Police and prosecutors will further investigate the case, officials added.
In China, the department for letters and calls at various levels functions as a place to collect and report public grievances. Petitioners who find their complaints have not been dealt with fairly at the local level sometimes go to Beijing to file their complaints.
Cases of petitioners being rounded up and brought back to their home provinces are frequently reported by the media.
In January, Premier Wen Jiabao visited the State Bureau for Letters and Calls and asked officials to be responsible and dedicated to addressing people's complaints, as a channel for the public to criticize and supervise the government.
Wen was the country's first premier to visit the state complaints bureau to have face-to-face communication with petitioners. Wen told the bureau's workers to respond to complaints lawfully and with ardor.
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