Caijing Online, 2009-08-12
The Nanchang (Jiangxi Province) Intermediate Court announced the verdict and sentences in the case against four police officers accused of torturing Wan Jianguo, who died during police questioning in July 2008. Nanchang police had detained Wan in July 2008 on suspicion of selling defective immune globulin to a local hospital where six patients died from the substance. A month earlier, however, another company had already admitted to selling the immune globulin to the hospital. While in police custody, two separate shifts of officers, allegedly upon the orders of chief criminal investigator Xia Xiangdong, repeatedly beat Wan with wooden clubs, police nightsticks and electric batons in the hopes of extracting a confession. They also, upon Xia's explicit instructions, suspended Wan upside down and swung his head into a metal railing.
The court found one officer, Deng Hongfei, guilty of intentional injury and sentenced him to 12 years fixed-term imprisonment. Chief criminal investigator Xia received a one year sentence for “torture to extract confession.” The two other officers charged with torture were found guilty but exempted from punishment—five other officers who admitted to torturing Wan were not prosecuted because “the circumstances of their crimes were minor . . . and they have displayed contrition.” Wan's widow, Wu Peifen, described the convictions as “extremely unjust” and vowed to file a prosecutorial protest. Wu's attorneys plan to jointly submit a “citizen suggestion letter” to the Supreme People's Court calling for consistency in the application of law and conviction and sentencing standards in cases of torture to extract confession resulting in death.
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