Disabled Rural Worker Reportedly Beaten to Death by Police

China Human Rights Briefing

December 21-27, 2012

Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment & Punishment

Disabled Rural Worker Dies After Police Beating

A disabled man looking for work in rural Hunan Province recently died after being detained and beaten by police.  Authorities paid off the man’s family in an attempt to lessen outrage and silence relatives. On December 6, 38-year-old Wang Zaili (王再黎), crippled, went with another man to look for work in Changde City. They were stopped by police, who handcuffed them and took them to the local public security bureau, where the men were reportedly beaten and kicked. After Wang’s companion was released the next day, he found out that Wang had died following the vicious assault. Irate over Wang’s fate, more than a hundred friends and family members went to the public security bureau, calling for justice while also mourning the man’s death. In order to silence the uproar over the police brutality, authorities offered Wang’s family 51,000 yuan (approx. US$ 8,000) in compensation and told the family “not to talk about the incident any more.”[i]

Edited by Ann Song and Victor Clemens

[i] “Disabled Hunan Villager Wang Zaili Dies From Police Beating” (湖南残疾农民王再黎被警察殴打致死), December 21, 2012, WQW