'They Dragged My Husband From The Car'


2014.08.18
china-june-4-detention-june-2012.jpg Police question and detain a man (2nd L) in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in a file photo.
AFP

A group of lawyers recently wrote to the ruling Chinese Communist Party leadership, calling for an investigation into allegations of torture by its disciplinary officials in the southern province of Hunan. Former industrial park official Xiao Yifei from Hunan's Ningyuan county was among the victims named by the lawyers and by overseas rights groups. During his six months in detention, Xiao was strung up from the ceiling and beaten, and subjected to simulated drowning, deprivation of food, extreme cold, threats and insults, according to the lawyers. His wife, Ouyang Xiaohong, spoke to RFA in a recent interview:

The men who detained my husband were trying to look like police officers, but they didn't produce any form of ID and they wore plainclothes. They just took my husband away in a plain car with no police registration.

When they detained my husband, we were on the way home in the car. We had got to a village, and there were two possible routes. One was the old road we knew well, and the other was a new road. We chose the new road.

While the new road was a bit smoother, they were still building one of the bridges. I was driving, and before we crossed the bridge, my husband got out to take a look at the bridge, to see if it was OK to drive across it.

It wasn't until he had got out that I realized there was a motorbike and two unmarked cars that had been following us the whole way. The moment my husband got back in the car, the motorbike drove in front of us and blocked our way. Then they dragged my husband from the car.

All the men who got out of the two vehicles were young, and carrying police batons. I told them my husband didn't break any laws, so why are you detaining him? They shoved me roughly. I said, what, are you going to beat us up now? They told me to get out of the car, and then I'd see if they dared to beat me up.

They showed no ID and they gave no explanation. A day later, an official called me from the municipal government [to explain].

After my husband was released, he tried to sue those officials and their leaders for acting illegally.

Not only were the people who detained my husband not punished for breaking the law; things have gotten better for them, and they've been promoted to higher and higher positions.

The attacks on my husband were a form of retaliation, because he didn't commit any crime.

Reported by Wen Jian for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

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