Probe into death of man, 54, in custody
Source: Xinhua |
December 20, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PROSECUTORS in an east China city are investigating the sudden death of an inmate who was in police custody for less than a month, after his family claimed he might have been beaten, local authorities said yesterday.
Zou Shenghuai, 54, fainted in his cell at a detention center in Yuanzhou District, Yichun City in Jiangxi Province, on the morning of December 11. He died after emergency medical treatment failed.
"We have launched an investigation at the family's request and will request an autopsy to determine the cause of the death," said Li Jianfeng, a deputy director of the district prosecutors office in Yichun.
Li said investigators had so far found no signs of assault or illegal treatment.
A police physical exam report said Zou had emphysema, a swollen liver and a blood tumor in the spleen when he was detained on November 23 on charges of illegal logging.
"Whether it was caused by illness or beating, the death of my father was a blow to the family," said Zou's daughter, Zou Fuhua. "It is hard for me to accept that he died just 20 days after being detained, especially when I know beating in custody is common."
The autopsy should be conducted by forensic experts from outside Jiangxi, preferably from Beijing or Shanghai where forensic analysis was more trustworthy, she said.
Beating and other irregularities in China's detention facilities came under scrutiny after a string of unnatural deaths in the past two years.
The most prominent case was in February 2009, when authorities in a detention center in the southwestern Yunnan Province said 24-year-old inmate Li Qiaoming had died while playing hide-and-seek.
An inquiry concluded that Li had been beaten to death by three other inmates.
Zou Shenghuai, 54, fainted in his cell at a detention center in Yuanzhou District, Yichun City in Jiangxi Province, on the morning of December 11. He died after emergency medical treatment failed.
"We have launched an investigation at the family's request and will request an autopsy to determine the cause of the death," said Li Jianfeng, a deputy director of the district prosecutors office in Yichun.
Li said investigators had so far found no signs of assault or illegal treatment.
A police physical exam report said Zou had emphysema, a swollen liver and a blood tumor in the spleen when he was detained on November 23 on charges of illegal logging.
"Whether it was caused by illness or beating, the death of my father was a blow to the family," said Zou's daughter, Zou Fuhua. "It is hard for me to accept that he died just 20 days after being detained, especially when I know beating in custody is common."
The autopsy should be conducted by forensic experts from outside Jiangxi, preferably from Beijing or Shanghai where forensic analysis was more trustworthy, she said.
Beating and other irregularities in China's detention facilities came under scrutiny after a string of unnatural deaths in the past two years.
The most prominent case was in February 2009, when authorities in a detention center in the southwestern Yunnan Province said 24-year-old inmate Li Qiaoming had died while playing hide-and-seek.
An inquiry concluded that Li had been beaten to death by three other inmates.
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