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Police apologize after wrongly detaining pregnant woman over mistaken identity

By Li Qian | December 11, 2013, Wednesday | Online Edition

POLICE in northwest China's Qinghai Province apologized publicly on Tuesday to a woman who was wrongly detained for 12 days in a case of mistaken identity.

Also, police officer Zhang Zhijun was suspended from his post for 30 days as punishment, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported.

Liu Li, 26, was nabbed on November 24 at the railway station in Leiyang City in central Hunan Province. She was placed under police custody in Hengyang in Hunan Province, the newspaper reported.

Leiyang police said she was a fugitive wanted by Qinghai police. They said Liu had been granted bail due to pregnancy after she was caught stealing 7,200 yuan (US$1,185.84) in Qinghai in November of last year.

None of that was true, however. Her husband, Liu Hua, and a local kindergarten, where she had resigned in August confirmed her true identity, the newspaper reported.

But local police didn’t investigate but just waited for Qinghai police to come pick her up. Qinghai police didn’t offer details to police in Hunan that could have been used to check Liu’s identity.

After staying at the Hengyang detention house for 12 days, Liu was escorted to Xining, the capital of Qinghai, on Friday, where she was confirmed innocent after staying there overnight.

Qinghai police said her personal information may have been stolen. Her husband said she had lost her ID card in July 2012 and applied for a new one without reporting the missing one.

“We have confirmed she isn’t the fugitive. We apologize to her and her family openly to dismiss the negative influence against her,” Qinghai police said on their microblog.

After the mistake was cleared up, she was moved to a hotel on Saturday, according to police.

“I am sure that I was wrongly detained, but no one listened to my explanation. They didn’t care, even though they saw my son crying beside me,” she told the newspaper.

“I feel I lost my dignity when a female police officer asked me to take off all of my clothes for a check,” she added.

She also said she felt sick when she was taken to Xining. A medical checkup showed she is one month pregnant.

Liu Hua blamed the police for scaring their five-year-old son and damaging his wife’s reputation. He asked for compensation, but police told him to talk to government departments, the newspaper reported.

Local lawyer Xiong Qi said Liu has the right to apply for compensation in Qinghai. If her request is denied, she can file a lawsuit, Xiong added.

Nation


 

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