Pekinese 29 Years Old Man's Death In Custody Spark Massive Protest in China

The Chinese people seldom adopt a collective response to an anonymous's death. However, Pekinese 29 years old's death when arrested by the police resulted in significant protests among the media and the Internet community.

A group of former students from a top university in Beijing is calling for a thorough investigation into the death of one of the college’s graduates while he was being arrested for allegedly soliciting a prostitute.

Public pressure and suspicions over the death of Lei Yang in the capital over the weekend are mounting even after police have repeatedly given their account of how he died.

An online petition launched by alumni at Renmin University, where Yang, 29, graduated with a master’s degree in environmental science in 2009, said the authorities’ claim that he died while trying to escape arrest by plainclothes police officers was unconvincing.

“It is hard to believe that Yang as a father of a newborn baby, would solicit prostitution while heading to the airport [to fetch a relative],” the petition said.
Chinese death in custody raises family and public fears of police brutality

“And the handling of prostitution cases should be done by uniformed officers who bear a proper police badge ... but the police in the Changping district did not do that. It’s shocking.”

A statement released by the Changping district public security bureau in Bejing said Lei was seen by plainclothes officers leaving a foot massage parlour at 9.14pm on Saturday.

It said Lei attempted to escape and resist arrest and that he also bit an officer and destroyed a hand-held camera.

Lei was restrained and taken to a police vehicle, but he climbed from the back to the front seat before opening the car door and escaping, the statement added.

He was caught again at 9.45pm and put in handcuffs, police said..

On the way back to a police office, Lei felt ill and was rushed to a nearby hospital at 10.05pm for emergency treatment. He died at 10.55pm, the statement added.

His family was not notified of his death until midnight on Sunday.

They were allowed to see the body at 4.30 am and found multiple bruises and injuries, but were barred from taking photographs.

Media reports also allege that Lei’s smartphone has been tampered with, with location records for a week erased.
Police said they arrested five other people at the foot massage parlour who gave evidence that Lei had paid 200 yuan (HK$ 240) for the services of a sex worker.

Beijing TV also aired a confession by one of the foot massage workers saying she had performed a sex act on Lei.
The case has drawn massive attention in China with Changping police coming under increasing criticism.
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The prominent criminal lawyer Chen Youxi said Changping police should withdraw from the investigation and hand it over to others as they appeared to have broken the law themselves.

“Even if Lei really did pay for a prostitute’s service, he is still not a criminal. In China, there is no such offence as soliciting prostitutes,” Chen said.

“One could be placed under security detention for soliciting prostitutes, but plainclothes police should carry the appropriate paperwork [to make arrests],” he said.

Internet users have found documents from the manufacturer of the police hand-held surveillance camera, questioning claims that Lei broke it by knocking it out of an officer’s hand.

The camera cannot be destroyed unless “it was dropped in any fashion to the ground from over 3.3 metres or higher”, the documents were quoted as saying.