Woman’s death in custody prompts investigation into police in central China
- Daughter claims the 56-year-old had ‘multiple bruises’ when she saw her at the hospital hours after she turned herself in for questioning
- The woman was waiting to be interrogated when she suffered a heart attack, authorities say
A local government task force in the central Chinese province of Hunan has been formed to investigate the death of a woman at a police station who had turned herself in for questioning.
Authorities in Cili county, Hunan province, said the woman, identified only by her surname Zhao, had suffered a heart attack but another person claiming to be her daughter said Zhao had “multiple bruises”.
In their statement, Cili authorities said Zhao turned herself in to police on June 14 for questioning related to procuring prostitutes.
While waiting to be interrogated, Zhao suddenly collapsed on her way to the toilet, the statement said.
“The police then contacted the hospital, but [Zhao] died after the hospital failed to rescue her. The hospital diagnosed a malignant cardiac arrhythmia resulting in sudden cardiac death,” the statement said.
“If the investigation finds any person has violated the discipline and the law, he or she will be dealt with seriously.”
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The investigation follows a public appeal by a woman identifying herself as Zhao’s daughter on Saturday, via social media platform Douyin.
She said her mother had turned herself in to police on Wednesday morning last week “to be interrogated”. The daughter said she was called by the station at 4pm that afternoon and told to go to the hospital.
There she found her mother with “multiple bruises” and no vital signs, the woman said on Douyin. She also claimed that police did not provide audio or video recordings of her mother’s four hours at the station.
Several media outlets picked up the woman’s claims, citing the absence of the recordings to raise questions about whether local law enforcement officials used violence against Zhao.
Many social media commenters also demanded that the police station release the surveillance video.
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The statement did not say whether the police station would provide surveillance recordings as evidence and calls to the station where the incident occurred went unanswered.
The Cili county propaganda department said on Monday that the local government had organised a joint investigation and results would be made public when available, according to the Xinan Evening News, based in the southeastern province of Anhui.
Torture is explicitly banned in Chinese law, with the country’s top legal bodies issuing a joint directive in 2016 against its use to extract confessions. “No one should be forced to prove their guilt,” the directive said.
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The same guidelines also required police to “gradually implement simultaneous audio and video recording of the entire interrogation process in all cases”.
Last year, more than 1,400 judicial staff were punished for crimes in office, which included the extortion of confessions by torture, according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
Zhang said he was tortured for six days and nights to extort a false confession for the murder of two boys.
