"Bizarre": Woman Dies After Interrogation at Police Station
■ Source: 环球网 & 红星新闻 & Isaiah
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.
“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.
The investigation follows a public appeal by a woman identifying herself as Zhao’s daughter on Saturday, via social media platform Douyin.
There she found her mother with “multiple bruises” and no vital signs, the woman said on Douyin.
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.
The reporter called the police station where the incident occurred to consult but got "our pigs did not give birth, I do not raise pigs" such an unbelievable response.
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.
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.
In 2020, a court in the eastern province of Jiangxi overturned the conviction of Zhang Yuhuan, who spent nearly 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.