Vendor’s death sees officers put in prison
Print Edition
Four urban management officers were jailed yesterday, one of them for 11 years, for their involvement in the death of a watermelon vendor in central China’s Hunan Province.
Deng Zhengjia, 56, was killed in a violent clash in Linwu County on July 17.
The four officers were give lighter punishments as they had all surrendered to police, according to a ruling announced by the Yongxing County People’s Court.
The farmer, from a village in Linwu, had been selling watermelons at a riverside scenic spot when the incident occurred. He and his wife were fined 100 yuan (US$16) for not having a license and were moving their produce to avoid it being confiscated when more officers arrived.
Witnesses said some onlookers who tried to film what happened on their mobile phones were pushed by the officers, their phones grabbed and smashed, according to earlier media reports.
During the altercation, Deng grabbed one officer’s work card but he was beaten up by other officers. One witness said eight people were beating Deng and one struck him on the head with an iron weight.
Shortly after Deng’s death, the county government claimed that the vendor had collapsed suddenly while confronting the officers, Xinhua news agency reported.
However, police concluded from forensic test results that Deng’s death resulted from external force, the court heard.
Six officers at the scene were detained after the incident, and two top officials of the county’s urban management bureau were sacked three days later.
The county government paid Deng’s family 897,000 yuan compensation.
Four of the officers were charged with “intentional injury” and yesterday they received jail terms of 11, six, four and three and a half years.
Urban management officers in China have often been associated with forceful, heavy-handed ways of ensuring order on the streets.
Internet users lambasted the sentences as unduly lenient and protecting government employees, AFP reported.
“They take a life but don’t pay with a life, they are all people but their lives are not treated the same!” one wrote.
“Too light! If the victim were related to an official I’m not sure this would be the sentence,” another said.
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