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Jailhouse death raises doubts about openness
Source: Xinhua |
February 24, 2009, Tuesday
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THE accidental death of a detained man puts China's police custody system under the spotlight after a skeptical public took unusual steps to probe for the truth.
A group of Netizens joined local police officers and prosecutors on Friday to inspect the detention center in Jinning County, Yunnan Province, where 24-year-old Li Qiaoming was fatally injured two weeks ago.
Li was detained on January 30 for illegally cutting down trees. He died on February 12 in the hospital due to severe brain injuries. Police in charge of the detention center said
Li was accidentally injured when he ran into a wall blindfolded during a hide-and-seek game with inmates, an activity that is not allowed.
But Internet users vehemently questioned the police explanation, citing it as "weird" and "hard to believe." Many Chinese media, print and online, intensively covered the "hide-and-seek" case in the past week.
In a surprising move, the publicity department of the Yunnan provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) responded to widespread calls for an independent probe by inviting Netizens to set up an investigation commission.
The attempt has been widely praised as a milestone for China in giving the public a new platform to exercise their legal right to know.
After a one-day inquiry on the spot, the commission published their report in full text online on Saturday, detailing what they saw and heard in the detention house, including living conditions and files about Li's ten days in jail.
"We've tried our best to be close to the truth," said Wang Yan, a reporter based in Yunnan and a member of the commission. "We want to give the public useful information as much as possible."
But the commission acknowledged that it was not easy to find out the truth in just one day because they were not trained investigators.
Li's death has aroused speculations about whether it was caused by ignorance of detention staff or violent abuse by other inmates. The commission report said local prosecution authorities have ruled out the rumors based on previous investigations.
Local police expressed concern that they had been unfairly targeted, saying that the details of Li's death were exaggerated.
But the commission members argued the root cause for the investigation was the police department's previous failures to communicate with the public.
While Li's case has been closed, many focused their attentions on an even bigger issue: Whether should law enforcement departments improve the transparency of the detention system and allow independent inquiry to become a regular practice?
No more torture
The Supreme People's Procuratorate statistics show Chinese procuratorates punished 930 government workers in 2006 who illegally took people into custody and extorted confessions by torture.
Cheng Lei, a member of the Research Center of Litigation System and Judicial Reform under the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said the police should learn a lesson from Li Qiaoming's case.
Cheng said the center was conducting a pilot program in three cities to send public inspectors to detention houses, learning from some European countries such as Britain.
The inspectors, selected from qualified doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, civil servants or community workers, are entitled to select time to visit local jails and randomly choose detainees to talk to.
They are also entitled to inspect the jails' condition and examine the jails' records so as to ensure that custody procedures are in line with the law and detainees are treated humanely.
But the experts said China still has a long way to go to change current situations in detention centers.
Indeed, different from many other countries which grant bail to most crime suspects, in China most suspects are kept in custody until they stand trial.
A group of Netizens joined local police officers and prosecutors on Friday to inspect the detention center in Jinning County, Yunnan Province, where 24-year-old Li Qiaoming was fatally injured two weeks ago.
Li was detained on January 30 for illegally cutting down trees. He died on February 12 in the hospital due to severe brain injuries. Police in charge of the detention center said
Li was accidentally injured when he ran into a wall blindfolded during a hide-and-seek game with inmates, an activity that is not allowed.
But Internet users vehemently questioned the police explanation, citing it as "weird" and "hard to believe." Many Chinese media, print and online, intensively covered the "hide-and-seek" case in the past week.
In a surprising move, the publicity department of the Yunnan provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) responded to widespread calls for an independent probe by inviting Netizens to set up an investigation commission.
The attempt has been widely praised as a milestone for China in giving the public a new platform to exercise their legal right to know.
After a one-day inquiry on the spot, the commission published their report in full text online on Saturday, detailing what they saw and heard in the detention house, including living conditions and files about Li's ten days in jail.
"We've tried our best to be close to the truth," said Wang Yan, a reporter based in Yunnan and a member of the commission. "We want to give the public useful information as much as possible."
But the commission acknowledged that it was not easy to find out the truth in just one day because they were not trained investigators.
Li's death has aroused speculations about whether it was caused by ignorance of detention staff or violent abuse by other inmates. The commission report said local prosecution authorities have ruled out the rumors based on previous investigations.
Local police expressed concern that they had been unfairly targeted, saying that the details of Li's death were exaggerated.
But the commission members argued the root cause for the investigation was the police department's previous failures to communicate with the public.
While Li's case has been closed, many focused their attentions on an even bigger issue: Whether should law enforcement departments improve the transparency of the detention system and allow independent inquiry to become a regular practice?
No more torture
The Supreme People's Procuratorate statistics show Chinese procuratorates punished 930 government workers in 2006 who illegally took people into custody and extorted confessions by torture.
Cheng Lei, a member of the Research Center of Litigation System and Judicial Reform under the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said the police should learn a lesson from Li Qiaoming's case.
Cheng said the center was conducting a pilot program in three cities to send public inspectors to detention houses, learning from some European countries such as Britain.
The inspectors, selected from qualified doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, civil servants or community workers, are entitled to select time to visit local jails and randomly choose detainees to talk to.
They are also entitled to inspect the jails' condition and examine the jails' records so as to ensure that custody procedures are in line with the law and detainees are treated humanely.
But the experts said China still has a long way to go to change current situations in detention centers.
Indeed, different from many other countries which grant bail to most crime suspects, in China most suspects are kept in custody until they stand trial.
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