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Police 'faked warrants' claim
By Wang Xiang |
May 5, 2010, Wednesday
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Online Edition
Online Edition
A NORTH China police station faked arrest warrants to extort money from innocent people by threatening to throw them in jail, a former legal official with the station has claimed.
Zhang Wenhui said she was suspended from her post in Lingshou County Public Security Bureau, Hebei Province, a year ago because she refused to cooperate with the extortion, the Beijing News reported today.
Zhang said the bureau chief told her to fake arrest warrants for six villagers who allegedly started a public fight last April. She refused. When she returned from maternity leave her job had been given to someone else, the report said.
A police officer investigating the fight told the newspaper he had no idea who started it and only took six from more than 100 villagers at the scene, whom the police assume all took part in the fight.
Lingshou police chief Zhang Qinghua made Kang Xin, head of the county's detention house, take the six in despite the fact that the center was still under construction, according to the report. An officer was quoted as saying that Zhang threatened to sack Kang if he refused to put the six villagers in jail.
Five of them were released after paying 5,000 yuan (US$733) in bail. No charges were pressed afterwards.
But a villager named Song Shuchun, who refused to pay, was sentenced to a year in prison with a two-year reprieve after he had been kept in custody for more than five months. He was also fined 15,000 yuan.
Song said that when he was in cell, officers repeatedly hinted that he could walk free if he paid 20,000 yuan in bail. Officers said he would face jail time if his case went to court.
Song said he was kept out of sight whenever officials from the province came to inspect the new detention house. He said he almost had a nervous breakdown during his stay in prison and seriously considered killing himself.
Zhang, the police chief, admitted in March that there were flaws in the paperwork on the six villagers' detention, but denied he ordered their arrest for the bail money.
Zhang said they had been detained to stop the fight escalating into a protest and said he would do it again if anyone "jeopardized the stability" in his jurisdiction.
Zhang Wenhui said she was suspended from her post in Lingshou County Public Security Bureau, Hebei Province, a year ago because she refused to cooperate with the extortion, the Beijing News reported today.
Zhang said the bureau chief told her to fake arrest warrants for six villagers who allegedly started a public fight last April. She refused. When she returned from maternity leave her job had been given to someone else, the report said.
A police officer investigating the fight told the newspaper he had no idea who started it and only took six from more than 100 villagers at the scene, whom the police assume all took part in the fight.
Lingshou police chief Zhang Qinghua made Kang Xin, head of the county's detention house, take the six in despite the fact that the center was still under construction, according to the report. An officer was quoted as saying that Zhang threatened to sack Kang if he refused to put the six villagers in jail.
Five of them were released after paying 5,000 yuan (US$733) in bail. No charges were pressed afterwards.
But a villager named Song Shuchun, who refused to pay, was sentenced to a year in prison with a two-year reprieve after he had been kept in custody for more than five months. He was also fined 15,000 yuan.
Song said that when he was in cell, officers repeatedly hinted that he could walk free if he paid 20,000 yuan in bail. Officers said he would face jail time if his case went to court.
Song said he was kept out of sight whenever officials from the province came to inspect the new detention house. He said he almost had a nervous breakdown during his stay in prison and seriously considered killing himself.
Zhang, the police chief, admitted in March that there were flaws in the paperwork on the six villagers' detention, but denied he ordered their arrest for the bail money.
Zhang said they had been detained to stop the fight escalating into a protest and said he would do it again if anyone "jeopardized the stability" in his jurisdiction.
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