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Family Sues Police Officers in Fucheng County, Hebei Province Over the 2002 Beating Death of Mr. Liu Quisheng By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China
(Clearwisdom.net) On February 2, 2002, Kou Wentong, the Deputy Head of
the Police Department of Fucheng County, Hebei Province, and Zhang Zhijun from
the same department, violently beat 44-year-old Mr. Liu Qiusheng from Qingdong
Village, Cuimiao Township, Fucheng County. The brutal beating on that day and
subsequent beatings in the days that followed eventually led to Mr. Liu's death
on February 22, 2002. Details follow: Without showing any warrant, Mo Dafu, the secretary of the Cuimiao Township
Communist Party, and several police officers from the local police station,
including Jing Shucang, abducted Mr. Liu on February 2, 2002. The only reason
they took him away was that Mr. Liu practiced Falun Gong. After they illegally
took him to the police department, Kou Wentong, the second in charge, and Zhang
Zhijun, tied Mr. Liu up and started to beat him for over an hour, until he lost
consciousness. Abducted and imprisoned next to her son's cell, Mr. Liu's mother
was a key witness. It was believed that Mr. Liu's internal organs had been
injured in the beatings. According to another imprisoned person there, the
officers later beat Mr. Liu several more times and he was force-fed while being
tied up on a bed. Within just twenty short days from February 2 to February 22, the police
tortured Mr. Liu, once a very healthy man, to death. During all this the police
did not allow Liu Qiusheng's family to visit him. On the eighth day of Mr. Liu's
imprisonment, his wife came to the police department and demanded a visit.
Officer Kou refused to let her in. They extorted 100 yuan from her, claiming it
was to buy food for her husband, which was later confirmed to have never
happened. To cover up the crime, Kou Wentong and other officers who were involved in
murdering Liu Qiusheng went to the village Party secretary for help. Together,
they plotted to call in Liu Dong, Mr. Liu's teenage son, as a witness for an
autopsy, without informing Mr. Liu's wife or mother. Seeing the badly tortured
body of his father being dissected, the child was terrified. When the autopsy
was complete, the officers reluctantly informed Mr. Liu's wife. What Mr. Liu's
wife saw was a bloody and indiscernible body, though it was obvious that his
ears, face, lips, right shoulder, and right chest were all terribly injured.
Nevertheless, the autopsy report said "no exterior injuries, died of heart
attack." Witnessing the injuries all over her husband's body, Liu Qiusheng's wife
insisted on personally hiring an independent legal medical expert. Refusing to
cooperate, Officer Kou ordered the body to be cremated right away. Liu
Qiusheng's family struggled hard to stop the cremation, until Officer Kou, the
second head of the powerful county police department, called in over 100
policemen. The police chief personally directed the officers to encircle Mr.
Liu's family members. With half a dozen officers attacking each of the family
members, the policemen pushed all of the family members down, stepped on their
heads, and covered their mouths with their hands to stop them from shouting or
talking. The man who was attacking Mr. Liu's son was actually the officer who
had previously acted as the coroner. In the end, they managed to quickly cremate
Mr. Liu's body and destroy the incriminating evidence. "Go ahead and sue
us," they shouted sarcastically. In accordance with the clauses of the Supreme People's Procuratrate regarding
provisions for investigation and justice in the case of five serious human
rights violations by public servants, the family of Mr. Liu Qiusheng took legal
action against his murderers, in particular, Kou Wentong and Zhang Zhijun of the
Fucheng County police department. Accepting the lawsuit and promising to
investigate, the County Prosecution Office soon informed Liu Qiusheng's wife
that "the investigation was done and it showed Liu died of a heart
attack." In despair, Mr. Liu's family had to file the suit in a higher
court. Although shadowed by the terrors of the"610 Office," many Fucheng
County residents have been closely following this case to see how the death of
Mr. Liu Qiusheng is eventually resolved. Original article date: October 21, 2004 Posting date: 11/1/2004 |