The following article is from 鸡蛋bot Author 卫子游
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On the 10th day of residential surveillance, 51-year-old Yuan Shihong suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest and died after resuscitation efforts failed.
He was an electrician at a petrochemical company in Jingmen, Hubei, and along with his former colleague Chen Shuiquan (pseudonym) was identified by local police as a suspect in a theft case. He was placed in a hotel the day after being taken into custody. During the period of residential surveillance, the suspects were required to sit on restraint chairs for long periods of time and wear leg irons and handcuffs, with limited freedom of movement.
Yuan Shihong’s death was related to his prolonged physical restraint. The forensic opinion stated that he died of pulmonary thromboembolism secondary to deep vein thrombosis in the lower extremities, leading to respiratory and circulatory failure. One of the causes of deep vein thrombosis in the lower extremities was “prolonged inactivity of the lower extremities.”
The case handlers explained that the use of police equipment on the suspects was a local police practice in handling residential surveillance cases, “with the aim of preventing the suspects from self-harm, self-mutilation, or escape.”
A legal expert analyzed to the author that Yuan Shihong’s death is just the tip of the iceberg of the evils of the residential surveillance system. In judicial practice, it is commonplace for suspects to be subjected to disguised abuse, physical punishment, and torture during residential surveillance, and the legislative body should abolish the residential surveillance system as soon as possible.
1
Death of a Theft Suspect During Residential Surveillance
At noon on September 8, more than 24 hours had passed since the summons, and the confessions of suspects Yuan Shihong and Chen Shuiquan had not been obtained. The case handlers of the Duodao Public Security Bureau did not release the two, but instead took them to the Tianhao Hotel in the jurisdiction for residential surveillance.
Years ago, the Tianhao Hotel was a designated location for the Duodao District Public Security Bureau of Jingmen City to handle cases involving residential surveillance. Residential surveillance is one of the compulsory measures stipulated in China’s Criminal Procedure Law, and the restriction on the personal freedom of suspects is between “bail for medical treatment” and “arrest”, belonging to a non-custodial measure.
Hotel surveillance showed that around 12:00 on the 8th, three “plainclothes” police officers escorted Yuan Shihong and Chen Shuiquan into the hotel. The two were handcuffed, and their eyes were covered with hoods and masks. Yuan Shihong’s room and Chen Shuiquan’s were adjacent, numbered 8806 and 8802 respectively, located in a corner on the west side of the second floor of the hotel.
A number of black iron restraint chairs were stacked in the corridor on the east side of the hotel. The chairs had iron rings to secure the hands and feet, and the investigators were more accustomed to calling them “tiger benches”. Case handlers Dai Mengfan and Liu Jun carried a restraint chair into room 8806.
Liu Jun recalled to the procuratorial organ that the restraint chair weighed about 40 kilograms, “It was quite difficult for two people to lift it, and it was the same as the interrogation chair in our case handling center.” At the same time, a red bag was also brought into the residential surveillance room, containing iron leg irons.
Yuan Shihong and Chen Shuiquan were colleagues at a petrochemical company in the Duodao District Chemical Industry Circular Park. From December 2019 to July 2023, several cases of cable theft occurred in the industrial park.
The case handlers found that Chen Shuiquan was highly suspected through preliminary investigation, and then identified Yuan Shihong through the DNA of items left at the scene by the suspect.
On September 7, 2023, the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Duodao District Branch organized a crackdown operation, with Captain Xu Fei as the commander, and the police officers responsible for the arrest were drawn from the White Temple Squadron, the Technical Squadron, and the White Temple Police Station. On the morning of the same day, Yuan Shihong was arrested and taken into custody, and Chen Shuiquan surrendered himself.
Relevant documents show that on the day the suspects were taken into custody, the Jingmen Municipal Public Security Bureau designated the Zhongxiang Municipal Public Security Bureau to have jurisdiction over the case. On September 8, the Zhongxiang Municipal Public Security Bureau decided to investigate the case and take residential surveillance compulsory measures, with the place of residential surveillance being No. 30, Zaodang Avenue, Lengshui Town, Zhongxiang City, and the Lengshui Police Station being responsible for the execution.
In judicial practice, it is not uncommon for the actual place of residential surveillance to be inconsistent with the location specified in the residential surveillance procedures. According to relevant laws, “residential surveillance shall be carried out at the suspect’s residence, and if there is no fixed residence, it may be carried out at a designated place of residence.”
However, Yuan Shihong and Chen Shuiquan both had fixed residences in Duodao District, but not in Zhongxiang City. Designating a different local public security bureau to have jurisdiction in order to take residential surveillance measures against the suspects is a common practice of the case-handling authorities.
On the tenth day of residential surveillance at the Tianhao Hotel, around 10:00 on September 17, Yuan Shihong was carried out of room 8806 by several people and sent to the Jingmen Central Hospital. The medical records showed that upon admission, Yuan Shihong had no spontaneous breathing, no carotid pulse, and moderate pitting edema in both lower extremities, and the preliminary diagnosis was “respiratory and cardiac arrest”. After a consultation with the doctors, it was decided to immediately put Yuan Shihong on ECMO (a life-saving device that replaces the function of the heart and lungs).
On the day of the incident, Captain Xu Fei was also at the Tianhao Hotel and had entered Yuan Shihong’s room to check. “I saw Yuan Shihong slip off the restraint chair from the toilet and slipped to the ground. At that time, Yang (a guard) was supporting him. I and Yang helped Yuan Shihong up and laid him flat on the ground,” Xu Fei stated in the record that he felt Yuan Shihong was breathing rapidly, so he pinched Yuan Shihong’s philtrum and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him, “and then found that Yuan Shihong was incontinent.”
Around 21:00 on September 18, Yuan Shihong was pronounced dead in the hospital after resuscitation efforts failed.
2The “Tiger Bench, Leg Irons, and Handcuffs” at the Residential Surveillance Site
Why did the suspect die inexplicably during residential surveillance?
After the incident, the local procuratorial organ launched an investigation into the death of the residential surveillance personnel. On September 23, the Jingmen Municipal People’s Procuratorate entrusted the Forensic Judicial Appraisal Institute of the Medical College of Wuhan University to conduct an appraisal of the cause of Yuan Shihong’s death and the manner of injury.
More than a month later, the appraisal results were released. Regarding the cause of Yuan Shihong’s death, the aforementioned judicial appraisal institution issued a “Judicial Appraisal Opinion” stating that Yuan Shihong died of pulmonary thromboembolism secondary to deep vein thrombosis in the lower extremities, leading to respiratory and circulatory failure.
“The formation of deep vein thrombosis in the lower extremities is considered to be related to multiple factors such as prolonged inactivity of the lower extremities, blood stasis, and trauma.” The aforementioned “Judicial Appraisal Opinion” shows that the formation of multiple injuries to the person being appraised is considered to be partly due to blunt external force and partly due to medical measures.
The doctor in charge of treating Yuan Shihong told the procuratorial investigation personnel that the causes of thrombosis are diverse, such as the patient’s individual constitution and whether they sit for long periods of time, “Combined with Yuan Shihong’s physical condition and age, it takes a long time for such a serious thrombosis to form in the veins and eventually lead to pulmonary embolism.”
Did the police officers in charge of the case force the suspect to sit for a long time and restrict his freedom of movement? In this regard, Chen Shuiquan, another person under residential surveillance, had a significant discrepancy with the testimony of the case handlers.
Zhu Shuai, a police officer from the White Temple Squadron who was in charge of the duty roster, said that for this residential surveillance task, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Brigade was responsible for the duty every day, and two auxiliary police officers were assigned to guard each residential surveillance room. Due to the shortage of auxiliary police officers in the Criminal Investigation Brigade, “the night shift was handled by special auxiliary police officers contacted by Xu Fei.”
Based on the testimonies of Zhu Shuai, Kong Renhui, and other duty police officers, the suspects had to sit on the restraint chair during the day, “Except for eating, sleeping, going to the toilet, and when the suspects requested to move freely, we would handcuff their right hands to the interrogation chair.”
If the suspects wanted to move, they could move around the restraint chair; at night, the suspects would sleep on the floor, “At night, we would unlock their handcuffs and then put on leg irons to prevent them from escaping.”
Figure: Interrogation chair (Source: Network) However, Chen Shuiquan’s testimony shows that the case handlers may have illegally used police equipment and restrained the suspects’ bodies for a long time.
Chen Shuiquan told the procuratorial organ that during the ten days of residential surveillance at the Tianhao Hotel, he spent most of his time on the “tiger bench”, “I was only allowed to come down when I went to the toilet, and one hand was uncuffed, and the leg irons were never unlocked. I was made to sit back up after going to the toilet.”
“Someone watched over me and gave me food and drink, but I was always sitting on the tiger bench.” Chen Shuiquan said: “I was so uncomfortable that my lower limbs were swollen. I didn’t rest on the bed.”
It is worth noting that the testimony of the special duty personnel in charge of guarding is also inconsistent with that of the police officers from the Criminal Investigation Brigade.
According to a special auxiliary police officer who guarded Yuan Shihong, during his shift, Yuan Shihong was always wearing leg irons, “including eating, moving, and going to the toilet, even when sleeping at night.” Another special duty officer said, “The suspect surnamed Yuan told me three or four times that his legs were swollen and he wanted to move around. I looked at it at the time, and his insteps were quite swollen.”
The evidence in the case shows that Yuan Shihong’s death was not without warning.
Chen Shuiquan said that after being arrested, Yuan Shihong told the police that he had suffered from heart disease. The physical examination form of the detained personnel showed that Yuan Shihong might have had an aneurysm, and his regular physical examination forms from previous years at the company also corroborated this situation.
Before the incident, hotel staff had witnessed Yuan Shihong’s condition worsen. “Every time I went to the room, I saw that these two suspects were generally bound to the iron chairs.” A staff member in charge of cleaning recalled, “The suspect in room 8806 was in a worse condition.”
3The “Practice” of Using Police Equipment in Local Residential Surveillance
Behind Yuan Shihong’s death, there is the issue of the local public security bureau’s illegal use of residential surveillance measures and the illegal use of police equipment in order to solve the case.
On October 26, 2023, the Duodao Public Security Bureau reached a settlement agreement with Yuan Shihong’s direct relatives, and the Duodao Public Security Bureau provided the deceased’s family with 1.8 million yuan in “economic assistance compensation”. On the same day, the family issued a written “understanding”, hoping that the judicial authorities would “handle the relevant responsible personnel leniently” when dealing with Yuan Shihong’s death.
The case of Yuan Shihong and Chen Shuiquan’s suspected theft involved a wide range of people, for example, the police officers in charge of residential surveillance and guarding involved multiple departments of the Duodao Public Security Bureau. And the only person who was eventually prosecuted for Yuan Shihong’s death was Dai Mengfan, the captain of the White Temple Criminal Investigation Squadron.
One month after the settlement agreement was reached, Dai Mengfan was criminally detained on the charge of abuse of power. After the investigation was concluded, Dai Mengfan’s case was designated by the Jingmen Municipal Procuratorate to the Zhongxiang Municipal Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
At 9:00 a.m. on June 20, 2024, the case of Dai Mengfan’s suspected abuse of power was tried in the Zhongxiang City Court. At about 15:00 on the same day, the presiding judge announced the adjournment of the court and the verdict would be announced at a later date.
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