Police officials suspended for detaining exam whistleblower
Source: Xinhua |
December 3, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TWO senior police officials in China's northwest Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have been suspended after officers admitted they were wrong to detain a man on libel charges for more than a week.
He Zexiang, director of Litong District Public Security Bureau in Wuzhong City, and Wang Hongdong, the deputy Party secretary of the police bureau, were held responsible for illegally holding 24-year-old librarian Wang Peng on November 23.
Wang, who was taken by police from his workplace in Lanzhou, the capital of neighboring Gansu Province, had exposed an employment scandal involving his former university roommate, whose parents are high-ranking officials.
Wang was released from a detention center in Wuzhong on Wednesday, following a public outcry.
On his release Wang said: "I was wrongly detained and hope police authorities will remedy the damage done to my reputation."
Earlier, an officer surnamed Shi at the public security bureau in Wuzhong said Wang had been detained for "seriously undermining national interest and disrupting social order."
Wang's father, Wang Zhichang, said in an interview with People's Daily that his son told him he was slapped and kicked dozens of times while in custody.
"Wang Peng suffered a lot, physically and mentally, due to police detention and we deserve compensation," the father said.
Wuzhong City Public Security Bureau, which oversees the Litong bureau, admitted police made a mistake. As the case is civilian dispute not a criminal charge, police didn't have the right to detain Wang, said Wuzhong police.
Wang's detention has aroused widespread public anger that reverberated through China's media this week.
Wang, a graduate of Lanzhou University, had claimed online that his university roommate, Ma Jingjing, may have cheated in the 2007 civil servant recruitment exam.
Both were Chinese language and literature majors, graduating in 2007. Wang said Ma had a poor academic record, yet scored the highest among nearly 500 candidates who applied for a government post in Ningxia's capital, Yinchuan.
He suggested that Ma's parents, senior officials in Ningxia, may have used their influence to secure a job for their son.
Ma's father, Ma Chonglin, is deputy chief of Ningxia's poverty relief office and his mother, Ding Lanyu, is a top official in Wuzhong.
After Wang was detained, his father began posting about his son's experience on the Internet, and this quickly became a hit, spreading on major portals and picked up by other media.
The case was seen as an example of power abuse by police and the privilege of the "guan er dai", which literally means the second generation of government officials but has become an alias for good-for-nothing children of the powerful.
"In Ma Jingjing and young people of his ilk who travel along a gold-paved path towards fame and fortune we see how unchecked power can be used to seek personal benefits," read a comment on rednet.cn. "They leave our society in terror and despair."
Wang's father said he had no evidence that Ma's parents had any involvement in Wang's detention.
"But I'm absolutely certain that things wouldn't have worked out this way if they were commoners like me," he added.
Professor Zhou Guangquan with Qinghua University's law school in Beijing said libel charges could be a tool for powerful officials to suppress disadvantaged people.
"It's time for China to nullify libel as a crime in criminal law," Zhou said.
He Zexiang, director of Litong District Public Security Bureau in Wuzhong City, and Wang Hongdong, the deputy Party secretary of the police bureau, were held responsible for illegally holding 24-year-old librarian Wang Peng on November 23.
Wang, who was taken by police from his workplace in Lanzhou, the capital of neighboring Gansu Province, had exposed an employment scandal involving his former university roommate, whose parents are high-ranking officials.
Wang was released from a detention center in Wuzhong on Wednesday, following a public outcry.
On his release Wang said: "I was wrongly detained and hope police authorities will remedy the damage done to my reputation."
Earlier, an officer surnamed Shi at the public security bureau in Wuzhong said Wang had been detained for "seriously undermining national interest and disrupting social order."
Wang's father, Wang Zhichang, said in an interview with People's Daily that his son told him he was slapped and kicked dozens of times while in custody.
"Wang Peng suffered a lot, physically and mentally, due to police detention and we deserve compensation," the father said.
Wuzhong City Public Security Bureau, which oversees the Litong bureau, admitted police made a mistake. As the case is civilian dispute not a criminal charge, police didn't have the right to detain Wang, said Wuzhong police.
Wang's detention has aroused widespread public anger that reverberated through China's media this week.
Wang, a graduate of Lanzhou University, had claimed online that his university roommate, Ma Jingjing, may have cheated in the 2007 civil servant recruitment exam.
Both were Chinese language and literature majors, graduating in 2007. Wang said Ma had a poor academic record, yet scored the highest among nearly 500 candidates who applied for a government post in Ningxia's capital, Yinchuan.
He suggested that Ma's parents, senior officials in Ningxia, may have used their influence to secure a job for their son.
Ma's father, Ma Chonglin, is deputy chief of Ningxia's poverty relief office and his mother, Ding Lanyu, is a top official in Wuzhong.
After Wang was detained, his father began posting about his son's experience on the Internet, and this quickly became a hit, spreading on major portals and picked up by other media.
The case was seen as an example of power abuse by police and the privilege of the "guan er dai", which literally means the second generation of government officials but has become an alias for good-for-nothing children of the powerful.
"In Ma Jingjing and young people of his ilk who travel along a gold-paved path towards fame and fortune we see how unchecked power can be used to seek personal benefits," read a comment on rednet.cn. "They leave our society in terror and despair."
Wang's father said he had no evidence that Ma's parents had any involvement in Wang's detention.
"But I'm absolutely certain that things wouldn't have worked out this way if they were commoners like me," he added.
Professor Zhou Guangquan with Qinghua University's law school in Beijing said libel charges could be a tool for powerful officials to suppress disadvantaged people.
"It's time for China to nullify libel as a crime in criminal law," Zhou said.
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