Within a day of his detention, Xie Zhigang (謝志剛) was dead.
His interrogators had called the emergency services because he “had no appetite.”
He died in hospital, where doctors recorded the cause as a heart attack.
His widow said his body told another story.
“There were bruises all over his body, and deep scars on his wrist and ankles. Five of his ribs were broken,” Wang Li (王麗) said, adding that she thinks he was tortured.
In a country that has recorded repeated scandals over deaths in custody and forced confessions, two things about the case stand out. First, the death last month in Benxi City, Liaoning Province, came months after China -introduced rules designed to reduce the use of torture in investigations. Second, Xie, who had been detained on suspicion of corruption, was a police chief.
“Forced confessions are rampant,” said Phelim Kine, at Human Rights Watch. “That a security official who fell foul of the authorities might end up being a victim of the same treatment is not surprising.”
No one knows how many such cases happen in China each year. A report from the ministry of public security said 1,800 police officers were suspended for torture in 2009. In a survey conducted in 2006, 70 percent of prisoners said fellow detainees they knew had made forced confessions.
“Among my cases and those of my lawyer friends we always come across this,” Beijing-based lawyer Teng Biao (滕彪) said.
The worst abuses have made waves. In March, police officers in Henan Province were sacked after the death of a man arrested for theft.
The Chongqing Evening News said officers told it he “died suddenly while drinking hot water.”
His family said his nipples had been cut off, his genitals slashed and his skull fractured.
It has been the futility of such tactics — as highlighted by the cases of She Xianglin (佘祥林) and Zhao Zuohai (趙作海) — that has helped galvanize opinion. Both men served lengthy sentences after admitting “murders,” only for their alleged victims to reappear. Both said they were beaten into confessions.
Those miscarriages of justice were in part responsible for new rules introduced last year against the use of evidence obtained by torture. However, although they are backed by the main crime agencies, they have yet to pass into national law.
Simply telling security officers what to do seems to have little effect. Since 2006, recording interrogations of officials has been mandatory.
When Xie’s family asked for the tape of his interview, prosecutors said they had not recorded it because they were not asking “in-depth” questions.
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