On November 8, 2023, 14 employees of Youyou Interactive (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. were detained by the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau of Hulunbuir City on suspicion of operating a casino. The company mainly engages in online game development services. My younger brother, Xing Yanjun, was the general manager, and the others were small shareholders and daily management personnel of the company.
On November 16, Xing Yanjun and others were detained at the Xinzuo Banner Detention Center in Hulunbuir City. On December 15, the Xinzuo Banner Procuratorate decided not to approve the arrest, but the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau did not release Xing Yanjun and others on bail as required by relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. Instead, they illegally placed 12 of them under residential surveillance in a special isolation facility used locally.
(Xing Yanjun’s designated residential surveillance location)
On the morning of April 3, 2024, Xing Yanjun died unnaturally in the designated residence. After Xing Yanjun’s death, our family members did not receive notification from the public security authorities immediately, but learned of his death through various channels in the evening of the same day. Regarding the authorities’ statement that the cause of death was suicide by hanging, our family members believe there are many doubts. We have successively raised these doubts and requests to the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau, the Procuratorate, and the Hulunbuir City Procuratorate, but have not received any response so far.
I. Why was Xing Yanjun and others placed under residential surveillance?
On December 15 last year, the Xinzuo Banner Procuratorate had already decided not to approve the arrest of my younger brother, indicating that the Procuratorate, after review, believed that Xing Yanjun did not meet the conditions for arrest and should be released immediately, or released on bail. Why did the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau take Xing Yanjun out of the detention center and take him to their designated residential location for continued detention?
If the public security believes that there are special circumstances or a need to handle the case and take residential surveillance measures against Xing Yanjun, then who can explain to us what is special about this case, what is the need to handle the case, and why Xing Yanjun had to be detained in various ways, leading to my younger brother’s death in the designated residence after 110 days, and even as of now, the remaining 11 people are still detained in the designated residence.
II. Does the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau have dereliction of duty?
Why was the designated residence chosen at a pandemic isolation point? According to legal provisions, it is strictly forbidden to carry out residential surveillance measures in public security organs’ case handling venues, office venues, or hotels, guesthouses, and other venues. The pandemic prevention and control isolation has ended a year and a half ago, why is this place still in use? Does it belong to a specific case handling venue requisitioned by the public security? In addition, the basic condition that the designated residence should at least meet is to ensure safety. Even if you want to designate a residence, shouldn’t you also ensure that the safety of the detained person is not compromised? Now that someone has died, where is safety guaranteed? Isn’t the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau directly responsible for this?
III. Is there really no surveillance in the room?
According to the Hulunbuir City Procuratorate, there is no surveillance in the room. The Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau only provided surveillance footage of the corridor and courtyard within 10 days of the incident. Our family members find this difficult to understand. Because there are more than a dozen people under residential surveillance, the police force of the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau cannot ensure that each room will have a dedicated person on guard. In order to ensure the safety of the detained persons, from the perspective of the case handling authorities, surveillance in the room should exist. This means that the entire process of Xing Yanjun’s death should have been completed under surveillance. Even if it was not prevented in time due to negligence at the time, the surveillance footage of the entire process at the time of the incident should be retained afterwards.
In addition, our family members have checked the law. Article 4 of the “Provisions of the People’s Procuratorate on Supervising the Implementation of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Residence” stipulates that the designated residence should have normal living and rest conditions, be separated from the interrogation venue; install monitoring equipment to facilitate supervision and management; and have safety precautions to ensure case handling safety. Therefore, both in terms of reason and law, surveillance video should be installed in the room. If it is true as the relevant personnel said, that my younger brother died by suicide, then show the surveillance footage and the truth will be revealed.
IV. Why were the accomplices locked up together, and does the roommate have any suspicion of committing the crime?
The accomplice, Hou, was in the same room with Xing Yanjun at the time of the incident. Why did the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau lock the accomplices in the same room? Aren’t they afraid of collusion? Hou knew Xing Yanjun’s mental state before his death. The designated residence room is not usually very large. If Xing Yanjun committed suicide by hanging, how could Hou not notice any abnormality in the small space, and wait until Hou notified the on-duty personnel to arrive, and Xing Yanjun had already died? According to the public security and the procuratorate, according to the preliminary examination of the body surface, there were ligature marks on the neck, which is consistent with the characteristics of suicide by hanging. Then, could it be that Hou strangled Xing Yanjun, then hung him on a rope, creating the illusion of suicide by hanging, and then called the on-duty personnel? Therefore, whether Hou is suspected of committing the crime, whether he has been threatened and induced by the case handling authorities for some purpose, we do not know.
V. Where did the rope come from?
The public security and the procuratorate said that the tool Xing Yanjun used to commit suicide by hanging was the elastic drawstring of his sweatpants. Why would an unsafe tool like an elastic drawstring appear in the detention facility? Especially since all the parties involved have experienced detention in the detention center, and it is theoretically impossible for them to carry similar tools to the designated residence from the detention center without any gaps. Who can explain the source of the rope to us?
VI. Did Xing Yanjun suffer torture before his death?
After Xing Yanjun successively experienced detention in the Haidian District Detention Center in Beijing and the Xinzuo Banner Detention Center, he should have been released on bail after the non-approval of the arrest. However, he was illegally placed under residential surveillance. The Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau should have released him but did not. This may be because residential surveillance lacks supervision, making it convenient to implement illegal evidence collection methods such as torture, providing confessions, and inducing confessions, forcing Xing Yanjun to submit, thereby obtaining confessions that could not be obtained in the detention center, and breaking through the case investigation. This is very likely to involve the real cause of Xing Yanjun’s death. And the case handling unit has not yet provided all the synchronous audio and video recordings of Xing Yanjun’s pre-death interrogation, which makes people suspect that the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau has a guilty conscience.
VII. Does Hulunbuir have jurisdiction over this case?
Youyou Interactive’s registered place is in Beijing, Xing Yanjun’s household registration place is Beijing, and his usual residence is also Beijing. The company has not conducted any business in Hulunbuir. My younger brother and Hulunbuir City have never had any contact. Why did the Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau of Hulunbuir City travel more than 1,500 kilometers to arrest the employees of the game company far away in Beijing, and freeze the bank accounts of the company and senior executives? This makes people suspect that Hulunbuir is handling this case for money, forcibly seizing jurisdiction, and has serious suspicions of “profit-seeking law enforcement”.
Xing Yanjun does not constitute the crime of operating a casino
1. Xing Yanjun did not have the criminal intent to operate a casino subjectively. He always believed that the online chess and card game he was involved in operating was a legal one.
2. The operating entity of the online poker game involved is a legally established company, the game APP operating procedures are legal, and it was launched after being reviewed and approved by the Apple Store. The company and game operating procedures are complete and the launch operation is legal.
3. Xing Yanjun did not engage in the act of operating a casino.
The entertainment mode of the game products involved is: players (gamers) register an account to enter the game platform, obtain platform-provided gold coins (virtual currency) or players purchase (consume) gold coins from the platform, players conduct poker entertainment on the game platform, and the outcome is settled through gold coins. Regardless of the outcome of the players’ wins or losses in the game, the platform will not exchange cash or property in the account’s gold coins in reverse. Game gold coins can only be used on the game platform involved and are not allowed to be exchanged or traded outside the game platform.
Based on the above facts, the game platform involved is not a gambling website, does not accept gambling bets, does not provide gambling to others, and does not develop or allow third parties to engage in agency activities and accept bets. More importantly, the game platform involved cannot and does not allow the “realization” of game gold coins, that is, players’ gold coins are not allowed to be exchanged for cash or property. This case does not have a gambling fund “closed loop” of investment – output. Therefore, this case does not have the act of operating a casino as stipulated in the criminal law and relevant judicial interpretations, and my younger brother Xing Yanjun does not constitute the crime of operating a casino.
Our family members will not give up and must find out the truth
My younger brother Xing Yanjun was 47 years old this year. Before his death, he was a high-end technical talent in the game industry. He had worked for many large companies such as YY and Kingsoft. He was healthy and positive in his life and had no physical or psychological illnesses. Now, because of the crime of operating a casino, he was illegally placed under residential surveillance in Hulunbuir, thousands of miles away from home. A good person died in a foreign land for unknown reasons.
Today is the 23rd day since my younger brother’s death. During this period, my lawyer and I have been running around various departments in Xinzuo Banner and Hulunbuir City, feeling very powerless. No unit has established a special case team or investigation team, and there is no dedicated person to connect with us. We can only construct some facts through the fragmentary words of various departments. The Supervision Branch of the Hulunbuir City Public Security Bureau even directly refused to receive us, saying that they were conducting internal self-examination and self-correction, and there was no need to tell the family members and lawyers. May I ask, isn’t this kind of handling method just trying to be a peacemaker and afraid of taking responsibility?!
This is my own younger brother, our family member. Before finding out the truth, our whole family will not give up. Although the dead cannot be brought back to life, we are pursuing the truth, seeking justice, and holding the relevant personnel accountable, which is also an explanation to my deceased younger brother, and an explanation to myself and my family members.
(The case handling organ that carried out the residential surveillance: Xinzuo Banner Public Security Bureau)
Discover more from 自由档案馆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.