Cops deny framing man in murder case
By Echo Wang |
May 6, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PROVINCIAL police in Henan Province reopened a murder case in Weishi County after an online post accused local officers of framing an insane villager to solve the case and boost their crime-clearance rate.
Weishi County police denied the accusation but admitted that they did arrest Liu Weizhong, a well-known mental patient in the county, for killing homeless man Wang Baoguo and throwing his body into a river in 2009.
They released Liu after he was in custody for more than 20 days. Police later declared the murder case solved and let Liu go on the grounds he was insane.
Liu, 46, had mental problems since he was a kid and everyone in the village knew it, according to his family. The family said they had never seen any arrest warrant since he was taken by police and they still don't even know whether Liu killed the homeless man.
The police officer who apprehended Liu allegedly told the family that they would send him to a nursing home for treatment of his mental illness. But Zhang Haiya, assistant to Weishi police chief, insisted that Liu turned himself in on December 25.
The online post claimed that this confusion was due to police in Weishi being urged to clear all of last year's murder cases in one month. The claim added that police started to frame innocent people, especially insane ones as they can not be punished by law, on the murder charges under such pressure.
Weishi police denied all the accusations by the online poster but did not provide a better explanation. They said the poster would not be held responsible though they had enough evidence to press charges for spreading a rumor.
Kaifeng City police also stepped in to probe the murder of the homeless man in Weishi. But Kaifeng police spokesman Liu Lei said the case has not been solved.
According to the Hunan provincial government's Website, the Kaifeng police authority required that all murder cases be solved in the limited period.
Weishi County police denied the accusation but admitted that they did arrest Liu Weizhong, a well-known mental patient in the county, for killing homeless man Wang Baoguo and throwing his body into a river in 2009.
They released Liu after he was in custody for more than 20 days. Police later declared the murder case solved and let Liu go on the grounds he was insane.
Liu, 46, had mental problems since he was a kid and everyone in the village knew it, according to his family. The family said they had never seen any arrest warrant since he was taken by police and they still don't even know whether Liu killed the homeless man.
The police officer who apprehended Liu allegedly told the family that they would send him to a nursing home for treatment of his mental illness. But Zhang Haiya, assistant to Weishi police chief, insisted that Liu turned himself in on December 25.
The online post claimed that this confusion was due to police in Weishi being urged to clear all of last year's murder cases in one month. The claim added that police started to frame innocent people, especially insane ones as they can not be punished by law, on the murder charges under such pressure.
Weishi police denied all the accusations by the online poster but did not provide a better explanation. They said the poster would not be held responsible though they had enough evidence to press charges for spreading a rumor.
Kaifeng City police also stepped in to probe the murder of the homeless man in Weishi. But Kaifeng police spokesman Liu Lei said the case has not been solved.
According to the Hunan provincial government's Website, the Kaifeng police authority required that all murder cases be solved in the limited period.
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