China doesn't torture? Family of Zhang Liumao says don't believe it.
| Beijing
A Chinese diplomat appearing聽Wednesday聽before the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva declared flatly that the problem of death in custody due to lack of medical care 鈥渋s not allowed to happen鈥� in his country.
Tell that to Zhang Weichu.
On Monday聽Ms. Zhang鈥檚 lawyer inspected the corpse of her brother, Zhang Liumao, who had disappeared into police detention some three months earlier. He reported finding a bruised and bloody body with apparent signs of torture.
鈥淢y brother was tortured and the hospital couldn鈥檛 save him,鈥� says Ms. Zhang. 鈥淒on鈥檛 believe that diplomat.鈥�
At the hearings in Geneva, China鈥檚 ambassador Wu Hailong said his government had made 鈥渆normous efforts鈥� to halt the torture of detainees.
But he and other members of his delegation 鈥済ave no concrete answers鈥� to probing questions from committee members about allegations of widespread police abuses in China, complains Patrick Poon, a researcher with Amnesty International who attended the hearings.
A recent Amnesty International report found that detainees in Chinese police stations are often beaten, held in steel 鈥渢iger chairs鈥� restraining them in painful postures for hours on end, and denied sleep, in defiance of the law.
Among the official measures to prevent such behavior that Mr. Wu mentioned was a new criminal procedural law requiring video and audio recordings of some interrogations. Currently lawyers are not allowed to attend interrogations under Chinese law.
Laws don't really matter
Police made a video of Zhang under questioning, his sister says, 鈥渂ut they say they will only show us an edited version and there is no point in that.鈥�
鈥淭here may be laws, but implementation is a major problem,鈥� says Mr. Poon. 鈥淚n practice, the close relations between the police, the prosecutors, and the courts 鈥� mean that all the arrangements the authorities claim are available to protect detainees and lawyers are really not implemented.鈥�
In the absence of independent reporting, it is hard to judge the scale of torture in Chinese police stations, says Poon. But the new regulations and laws implemented to curb the practice have had an 鈥渋nsignificant鈥� impact, he argues, not least because when policemen are prosecuted they are let off lightly.
鈥淭here are plenty of cases prosecuting torture offenders,鈥� Li Wensheng, deputy head of legal affairs in China鈥檚 police force, told the UN committee in Geneva. The body periodically reviews the record of nations that have ratified the convention against torture. But he evaded questions about the exact number of such cases. He mentioned one instance of five policemen sentenced to up to two years in prison for torturing a detainee, a punishment one committee member suggested was 鈥渞ather mild.鈥�
Should an investigation bear out Zhang Weichu鈥檚 suspicions that her brother was tortured she plans to sue the police. But she says there is 鈥渙nly a 10 percent chance鈥� of an open and honest investigation.
Zhang Liumao, her brother, was a small-time human rights activist in the southern city of Guangzhou, according to rights defenders who knew him. He never took a prominent role, but would help pro-democracy activists if they got into trouble, partly by drawing attention to their cases.
He was detained last August on charges of 鈥減icking quarrels and stirring up trouble,鈥� a catch-all charge that authorities often bring against people who challenge the ruling Communist party.
A 2 a.m. phone call
The next thing the family heard, in a phone call at two in the morning on Nov. 4聽from a police officer at Guangzhou鈥檚 Detention Facility No.3, was that Zhang had died 90 minutes earlier. The caller gave no cause of death.
It turned out later, says Ms. Zhang, that her brother had been taken to the hospital on聽Oct. 11. It appears that during the last three weeks of his life he was shuttled between the Guangzhou Armed Police hospital and the police detention facility.
Two days after his death the official news agency website, Xinhuanet, published an article claiming that Zhang had been the leader of a terrorist bomb-making gang who had intended to overthrow the Chinese government. He had died of an uncontrollable nosebleed and internal bleeding caused by cancer, the article added.
For two weeks the police refused to let relatives see Zhang鈥檚 body. The lawyer whom the family first hired says he was pressured by State Security agents who prevailed on his law firm to stop him taking the case.
When a second lawyer, Qin Chenshou, was allowed to inspect Zhang鈥檚 body, along with relatives, he found 鈥渁 deep scar left by a shackle on the right ankle 鈥� bruises all over the abdomen 鈥� obvious bloodstains on the chest鈥� along with injuries to the head, arms and legs, according to his report, which 海角大神 has seen.
鈥淚 think Zhang may have been tortured but I cannot say for sure until there is an official medical report,鈥� says Mr. Qin. 鈥淏ut the family is suspicious and they want the autopsy done by an independent third party, not the police.鈥澛�
