QUESTIONS are being asked about strange deaths in Chinese prisons. It has emerged officials are logging such cases as an inmate who was killed playing blind man's buff, another who died from picking at acne and a third who apparently tripped and fatally fell in a toilet, The Australian reports.
These are among the recorded reasons for a large number of bizarre deaths suffered by inmates of China's detention centres over the past 18 months.
The Zhejiang Daily compiled accounts of such deaths and used them to grill the Detention Centre Management Bureau of the Public Security Ministry.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. .End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. While revealing shocking information about China's penal system, its very publication domestically holds out the prospect of reform - because without some official protection, such news could never have been brought to light.
It was in the detention centre of Puning County in Yunnan that Li Qiaoming was said by police to have suffered fatal injuries from bumping into a wall while playing blind man's buff with fellow inmates.
Yu Weiping died in Gaocun town, Wendeng City, Shandong province. His family found small holes in his chest, which the detention centre claimed were caused by his picking at acne. An autopsy revealed he was killed by repeated stabbing with a needle-like object.
Chen Xujin died in Xiushui County, Jiujiang, in Jiangxi province, when according to police he tripped in the toilet and died suddenly. A doctor later admitted he was forced to make a false corroboratory statement.
A former director-general of the Detention Centre Management Bureau told the newspaper: "I listen (to these cases) and think it's ridiculous. Most are the result of beatings."
Read more at The Australian
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