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Confessions were forced, say youths
By Jane Chen |
April 18, 2009, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TWO students in Yunnan Province are seeking an apology from police who, they claim, forced them to confess to starting a fatal forest fire earlier this year.
The students, Yang Qiao and Yang Rui, are suing the Kunming Forest Police's Jinning Branch and the Jinning County Forest Bureau. The Jinning County People's Court on Thursday agreed to hear the case, the Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.
The students are also asking for compensation of 1 yuan (15 US cents) for mental anguish.
The police and the forest authority declined to comment yesterday.
Yang Qiao, Yang Rui and Zhang Liutao were accused of causing a forest fire that started on February 2 in Jinning, 60 kilometers from Yunnan's capital, Kunming city. Police said they had left burning cigarette butts on the ground and these had ignited dry grass which resulted in the forest fire.
The students were not punished. However, they deny the charges, saying local police forced them to confess.
The police had threatened them by saying they would arrest their mothers and fathers if they did not confess, the parents of Yang Rui and Yang Qiao told the newspaper.
Zhang was so frightened by the police that he was taken to hospital, they said.
The boys had been smoking, according to their lawyer Yang Guangren, but that was 3km from where the fire started.
They also had proof they were nowhere near the scene when the fire started, he said. They didn't visit the scene of the fire until hearing about it on the radio, Yang said.
The blaze in Jinning's Sanjia Village took more than 1,000 firefighters and police 14 hours to bring under control.
Li Kunpeng, 37, director of the fire prevention office of the forestry bureau, died fighting the fire. The fire swept over more than 130 hectares but no homes or crops were lost.
The students, Yang Qiao and Yang Rui, are suing the Kunming Forest Police's Jinning Branch and the Jinning County Forest Bureau. The Jinning County People's Court on Thursday agreed to hear the case, the Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday.
The students are also asking for compensation of 1 yuan (15 US cents) for mental anguish.
The police and the forest authority declined to comment yesterday.
Yang Qiao, Yang Rui and Zhang Liutao were accused of causing a forest fire that started on February 2 in Jinning, 60 kilometers from Yunnan's capital, Kunming city. Police said they had left burning cigarette butts on the ground and these had ignited dry grass which resulted in the forest fire.
The students were not punished. However, they deny the charges, saying local police forced them to confess.
The police had threatened them by saying they would arrest their mothers and fathers if they did not confess, the parents of Yang Rui and Yang Qiao told the newspaper.
Zhang was so frightened by the police that he was taken to hospital, they said.
The boys had been smoking, according to their lawyer Yang Guangren, but that was 3km from where the fire started.
They also had proof they were nowhere near the scene when the fire started, he said. They didn't visit the scene of the fire until hearing about it on the radio, Yang said.
The blaze in Jinning's Sanjia Village took more than 1,000 firefighters and police 14 hours to bring under control.
Li Kunpeng, 37, director of the fire prevention office of the forestry bureau, died fighting the fire. The fire swept over more than 130 hectares but no homes or crops were lost.
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