Source: Sinosphere, NYT (8/10/15)
Drawings Depict a Former Chinese Prisoner’s Alleged Torture by Police
By VANESSA PIAO and AUSTIN RAMZY AUGUST
The inscription on the drawing of the police abusing Liu Renwang reads: “Many people beat and tortured me countless times.”
Liu Renwang, who was twice convicted of murder before the verdict was overturned on appeal.
The hand-drawn images are bizarre and disturbing. One shows a man locked in a cage while a police officer pours boiling water on his head. Another shows him suspended from the ceiling by handcuffs as an officer jabs his side with an electric baton.
They are amateurishly drawn, with faces showing strangely neutral expressions amid scenes of severe cruelty. Yet they have captured public attention in China for their surprisingly candid depiction of abuse by the police.
Overseas human rights groups have often reported on police abuse in China, and the topic is sometimes taken up by reporters in the country, but the drawings depicting the ordeal of a man wrongly convicted of murder are one of the most graphic representations of such torture to appear in the Chinese news media in recent years.
Liu Renwang, who was twice convicted of murder in the 2008 shooting death of a village official in Shanxi Province, says the drawings depict the methods the local police used to force him to confess to a crime he did not commit.
“Forcing coffee down the nose and mouth.” Credit Courtesy of Liu Renwang
In 2010, a Shanxi court handed Mr. Liu a suspended death sentence. Two years later, the case was reinvestigated, and he was given life imprisonment. He appealed, and in 2013 he was found not guilty. The official’s murder remains unsolved.
Mr. Liu’s case would normally have attracted little attention, but this weekend The Paper, a state-run online publication based in Shanghai, reported on his case and included the drawings of alleged police abuse.
Mr. Liu, 53, said he had the images drawn as part of an effort to win compensation from the local authorities.
“I wanted to let people know how the police would use torture in interrogations,” he said by telephone on Monday. The alleged abuses included pouring liquids down his nose and forcing him to go many hours without sleep.
“Hung up for a day and a night and given electric shocks. One or two hours each time, causing me to lose consciousness.”Credit Courtesy of Liu Renwang
He said the officers who tortured him were from the Zhongyang County Public Security Bureau. A woman who answered the phone at the bureau on Monday afternoon said she did not know about the case and declined to comment.
Mr. Liu said that he had asked several painters in Zhongyang to illustrate his experience but that they all turned him down for fear of police retaliation. Eventually a painter in Hunan Province agreed to draw the pictures for him.
“He expressed sympathy regarding my experience and said he could do it,” Mr. Liu said. He said the painter drew six cartoons for him and charged only 100 renminbi, or about $16.
Their publication comes as Chinese courts are increasingly focusing on wrongful convictions, particularly in death penalty cases, and trying to reduce errors and avoid the potential social unrest set off by the execution of innocent people while true culprits go free.
“Piercing fingertips for up to two hours.”Credit Courtesy of Liu Renwang
“We deeply reproach ourselves for letting wrongful convictions happen,” Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of the Supreme People’s Court of China, said in March, reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency. “Courts of all levels should learn a serious lesson from these cases.”
Legal experts say the Chinese police are under great pressure to solve capital crimes, which can contribute to wrongful convictions. Forced confessions are often a factor in such cases, as they can help ensure a conviction when no other evidence exists.
Mr. Liu said that he had not had experienced any pressure from the police so far in connection with the images and that he was not afraid of possible retaliation.
“Pouring boiling water on my head and preventing me from sleeping for up to eight days.”Credit Courtesy of Liu Renwang
“I have died dozens of times,” he said, describing the techniques the police used on him, which he said sometimes left him unconscious. “Also, I’m telling the truth. So I have no fear.”
Mr. Liu, who worked as a truck driver and was his family’s breadwinner before he was detained, said his imprisonment was a major emotional and financial blow to his family. He said his wife, who was also detained for a month when he was taken away by the police, was emotionally devastated and suffered from prolonged anxiety. His three children, now ages 23, 25 and 27, faced discrimination during his imprisonment because their father was believed to be a murderer, he said.
“Sticking cotton swabs into my ears and not letting me sleep, damaging my hearing.”Credit Courtesy of Liu Renwang
He said he remained unemployed and was seeking 6 million renminbi, or nearly $1 million, in compensation from the Lüliang Intermediate Court, which convicted him. Lüliang is the prefecture-level city that encompasses Zhongyang.
“After their interrogations, my hair turned gray, my hearing was damaged, and my lower back could not move properly,” he said. “My health has collapsed. I can do nothing now.”