The individuals responsible for torturing Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Zuo Zhigang to death are again attempting to cremate his body, ensuring that all remaining physical evidence of their crimes is destroyed. Authorities try to have the body cremated against family wishes using the excuse that the family has "exceeded the body preservation time." Their behaviour arouses suspicions that by cremating Mr. Zuo's body they intend to destroy evidence of their crimes. They didn't notify Mr. Zuo's family. Instead, they posted a notice on page B05 of the April 26th, 2007 Edition of Shijiazhuang Yanzhao City News. Staff from the Shijiazhuang Funeral Home announced a 60-day moratorium with the intent to cremate his body immediately after June 26th, 2007.
In June 2006, the Shijiazhuang Funeral and Internment Management Division published a similar announcement. Mr. Zuo's family protested and so his body was kept in cold storage for another year.
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| Zuo Zhigang |
Mr. Zuo Zhigang was a practitioner from Heilongjiang City in Hebei Province. In May 2001, he was tortured to death at Qiaoxi District Xinhua Police Station in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. He was 33 years old at the time of his death. He was a certified maintenance engineer for Phillips Monitors, and he worked at an Epson retail store on Zhongshan Road, in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province.
On the afternoon of May 31st, 2001, which was not even one day after Mr. Zuo was arrested by police from the Xinghua Police Station in Qiaoxi District of Shijiazhuang City, his family was notified that he had committed suicide by hanging. An insider from the Xinhua Police Station stated, (and this information was verified), that Mr. Zuo appeared to be calm and serene. He had looked tired. From his body one can see that his face is swollen; his right ear appeared to be heavily bruised, there were two holes about one inch apart on his back, and marks from being tied tightly with a thin rope was found on his neck. Other parts of his body did not show any obvious wounds.
Six years have passed and those who caused Mr. Zuo's death have still not been brought to justice. There have been repeated attempts to destroy the evidence. We appeal to the international community to begin legal proceedings into the circumstances of Zuo's death. We also appeal to those in China's legal profession who still have a conscience and wish to see justice done to file for legal redress and investigate this murder. We are asking that another autopsy be performed and a medical report created. The murderer has to be brought to justice.
Attachment 1: Application for confirmation of a law-violation action against police from the Shijiazhuang City Police Station and Qiaoxi Police Sub-station for causing Mr. Zhu's death through torture.
Attachment 2:
Appellant:
Name: Mr. Zuo Yaoxin - father of the murdered Mr. Zuo Zhigang, male. Date of birth: January 13th, 1934.
Name: Mr. Zhang Zhuting - mother of the murdered Mr. Zuo Zhigang, female.
Appeal
1. Confirmation of law-violation by police from the Shijiazhuang City Police Station and Qiaoxi Police Sub-station for causing the death of Mr. Zuo Zhigang through torture.
2. Compensation to Appellant for costs related to the funeral.
3. Compensation to Mr. Zuo's dependents for loss of livelihood and living expenses in the amount of 292,500 yuan1.
I. Background Information and Facts:
1. Background
Mr. Zuo was born on July 19th, 1968 and he lived with us, his parents. He was healthy, and was employed at Hebei Ruiguang Computer Company. He planned to get married on May 31st, 2001. During the day of the wedding preparations, on May 30th, 2001 at 3:30 p.m., several police officers from the Qiaoxi Police Sub-station arrived at Mr. Zuo's workplace. They arrested him without a warrant and took him to Xinghuajie Police Station at 7:30 p.m. after ransacking our home. The next day, at 5 p.m., police from the Qiaoxi Police Sub-station ordered me to come to the 3302 Security Division. After questioning me for a couple of hours, they told me, "Mr. Zu has committed suicide by hanging. He used his shirt to hang himself in the detention cell at the police station at 6:30 a.m."
At about 10:30 a.m. on June 1st, police from the Qiaoxi Police Sub-station described how our son supposedly killed himself: "On the afternoon of May 30th, Mr. Zuo was taken to Xinghuajie Police Station, where he was interrogated by police officers. At that time, Zuo appeared peaceful. The interrogation lasted until 9:30 p.m. Between 7:20 a.m. and 7:40 a.m. the next morning, people who monitored him bought him breakfast. While he was eating his breakfast, they cleaned the floor outside the detention cell. About 6 or 7 minutes later, they returned to the cell and found Zuo had hung himself with his short sleeve shirt on the iron-gate. He died despite emergency rescue attempts." They didn't produce any medical examiners report. Later, our entire family went to Xinghuajie Police Station to look at the detention cell. Based on that, we found their story quite suspicious. They refused to answer our questions.
Then, we went to the crematory to view our son's body. We noticed on each side of his neck a fairly long and thin wound. There was blood around the wounds. We also saw two deep holes on his back, about 1.5 inches apart. A large portion of his back appeared to be purple. We saw head wounds. There were bumps on his left cheek and chin, apparently the result of being struck by a blunt object, something like an iron bar. His right ear appeared to be completely dark blue, yet there was no blood on his shirt. We demanded several times that police from the Qiaoxi Police Sub-station produce the autopsy report, but they refused. They demanded that we have our son's body cremated as soon as possible.
Finally by July 11th, 2003, over two years after our son's death and after numerous requests, as well as government appeals, they turned over a copy of the coroners report, but without any photo.
2. Death Due to Torture
On each side of his neck, there was a fairly thin wound mark and there was blood around the wounds. There were two deep holes on his back, about 1.5 inches apart. A large portion of his back appeared to be purple. There were head wounds. There were bumps on his left cheek and chin, apparently from being struck by a blunt object. His right ear appeared to be completely dark blue.
This description indicates that the our son died from being tortured.
3. Evidence to Mr. Zuo's Alleged Suicide Missing
1) Shijiazhuang City Qiaoxi Police Sub-substation was responsible for Mr. Zuo's case. After Zuo's death, the legal medical examiner of Qiaoxi Police Sub-station should not have gotten involved in the investigation.
2) The alleged site of Mr. Zuo's suicide was supposedly cleaned. The main evidence, body, shirt, scissors, knife, shoes, underwear and so on were removed and possibly destroyed. The body was taken to the crematory without his family's knowledge. The family was notified after his body had been taken to the crematory. Police officers claimed that Zuo died at 6:30 a.m. on May 31st. The family was not notified until after 5 p.m. on the same day. His family did not view the body until the afternoon of June 1st.
3) The examiners report was released to his family after 2 years and 41 days, on July 11th, 2003. He passed away on May 31st, 2001. His family had requested the report many times. No photos were provided.
4) Hebei Province Shijiazhuang People's Procuratorate procuratorial affirmation notice indicates that the legal medical examiner did a very simply body surface examination. They confirmed that it could not be ascertained that Mr. Zhu committed suicide by hanging.
Sincerely,
Shijiazhuang City Police Station and Qiaoxi Sub-station
Applicants: Mr. Zuo Yaoxin, father of the deceased and
Ms. Zhang Zhuting, mother of the deceased
Attachment 2: Lawsuit Filed by Zuo Zhigang's Father, dated August 12th, 2003
Additional details and background of this case have been reported here:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/6/29/62377.html
The following is a translation of the lawsuit documentation.
Lawsuit
Plaintiff: Zuo Yaoxin, father of victim
Defendant: Qiaoxi District Police Station of Shijiazhuang City Police Division
Requests:
1. Autopsy to be performed by an honest coroner with excellent professional credentials and knowledge of the judicial, procuratorate and police system.
2. Investigate the crime and prosecute all individuals from Qiaoxi Police Station who partook in this crime, i.e., those responsible for the detention and torture death of Mr. Zuo Zhigang
3. Compensate the victim's family for financial and emotional loss.
Plaintiff's Statement:
My name is Mr. Zuo Yaoxin. I am a male and was born on January 13th, 1934. I live in the No. 4-3-104 Dormitory of the No. 3302 Factory. I am retired and was a doctor at the factory clinic.
I request that a lawsuit be filed concerning my son's death at the Xinghua Street Police Station, where he was detained and tortured.
My son Zuo Zhigang was born on July 19th, 1968. He lived in our home and was very healthy. He worked at the Ruiguang Computer Company in Hebei Province and was getting married on May 31st, 2001. While we were preparing his wedding, several officers from the Qiaoxi Police Station went to my son's work unit around 3:30 p.m. on May 30th, 2001. They took him to the Xinghua Street Police Station without following legal procedures. They ransacked our home at around 7:30 later that evening. At about 5:00 p.m. the next day, someone from the Qiaoxi Police Station told me to go to the Security Section at the No. 3302 Factory. After two hours of questioning they told me, "Mr. Zuo Zhigang has committed suicide by hanging himself with a short-sleeve shirt in the detention room at the police station today at around 6:30 a.m."
At about 10:30 a.m. on June 1st, officers from the Qiaoxi Police Station provided details of Mr. Zuo Zhigang's death,
"In the afternoon of May 30th, Zuo Zhigang was taken to the Xinghua Street Police Station, where the officers interrogated him. He was calm during the process. The interrogation ended at 9:30 p.m. Between 7:20 a.m. and 7:40 a.m. the next day, members from the Security Team who were in charge of watching him took his breakfast to him. While he was eating they went to clean the hallway. About seven minutes later they found that Zuo Zhigang had hung himself on the iron-barred door with his short-sleeve shirt. He died after resuscitation efforts failed." There was no autopsy report.
Our family went to the Xinghua Street Police Station and looked at the spot where they claimed Zuo Zhigang had died. We had many questions but were not given any answers. We then went to the crematory to look at Zuo Zhigang's body. We saw two narrow scars with blood around them on both sides of his neck, and on his back were two holes about one inch apart, and a large area of skin on his back was purple. His head was also injured. There were bumps on his left cheek and chin, apparently the result of being struck by a blunt object, and his right ear was completely dark blue. There was no blood on his clothes. We asked the Qiaoxi Police Station many times to show us an autopsy report, but they refused and pressured us to go through with the cremation. On July 11th, 2003, more than two years after Zuo Zhigang's death and after numerous appeals and pleas from our family, they gave us a copy of the coroner's report, but no picture.
We are convinced of the following:
First, there was no motive for suicide. Zuo Zhigang is our youngest child and the only son. Our whole family was preparing for his wedding. The officials from his former work unit, the TV factory, said when Zuo Zhigang went to the factory to fill out some paperwork required for marriage one week before his arrest his former colleagues joked with him and said they would attend his wedding at his home. His current company planned to send him on an errand in the afternoon on the day of his arrest, and his supervisor assigned it to someone else after Zuo Zhigang explained that he had plans that evening. In fact, he was going to meet his fiancé at 7:00 p.m. and they were going to take wedding pictures the following day.
Zuo Zhigang has two sisters. The older sister does not live with us and the younger sister is on extended medical leave. The evening before his arrest my wife said to him, "Your father and I will take care of your younger sister." He immediately said, "So will my wife and I."
1. A few days before his death, Zuo Zhigang's former colleagues at No. 54 Institute who are now working in Shenzhen City introduced him to work there for a higher pay, but he declined the offer as he wanted to stay close to home so he could take care of his parents.
Although he was laid off, he earned more than 1,000 yuan a month. His supervisor respected him and his colleagues liked him. A survey showed that his satisfactory work rating with his customers was 100 during two consecutive years. (He fixed monitors). How could a person with a good career who is the breadwinner of a family, who is about to get married, suddenly commit suicide? It's impossible!
He often fixed electric appliances for people free of charge, and some appliances waiting to be fixed were found in his company drawer. If he wanted to die, he would have taken care of these things first.
Police at Qiaoxi Police Station claimed that the two-hour interrogation on the evening of May 30th was performed in a peaceful atmosphere and no torture was employed. Zuo Zhigang's behavior was normal. Without suffering any physical torture or mental torment, there is no reason for a dramatic change in Zuo Zhigang's mental state after only a short conversation. At what point does a person commit suicide? What does he do before he kills himself? He would be desperate and go through inner turmoil, and his mood would be abnormal. How much courage does it take to take this step, and how much time does it take to make the decision to end one's own life? How could Zuo Zhigang have committed suicide without having shown any suicidal behaviour?
2. The physical evidence is not that of a suicide scene. Police from the Qiaoxi Police Station first claimed that Zuo Zhigang was held in the detention cell at the Xinghua Street Police Station and was monitored around the clock. How could he have found an opportunity to commit suicide? At first, Qiaoxi Police Station staff claimed, "The people in charge of watching Zuo Zhigang were cleaning an area of about 2 square metres outside the detention room at the time of Zuo Zhigang's death. An iron-barred door separated them and they could both hear and see Mr. Zuo Zhigang at all times. How could they have let him commit suicide? The police later changed their story and said, "These people went to dump the garbage and saw that Zuo Zhigang had hung himself when they returned." The detention room is only a few meters from the garbage collection site and it takes only a few minutes round-trip. How did Zuo Zhigang get enough time to commit suicide? Qiaoxi Police Station personnel claimed that his suicide process took only six or seven minutes. Zuo Zhigang is 1.72 meters tall (about 5 ft. 8 in.) and the iron-barred is 1.6 metres high (about 5 ft. 3 in.). He would have to have hung himself with bent legs. As a healthy person, instinct would have him kick out and his feet would have touched the ground, so it would have been very difficult for him to kill himself with a short-sleeve shirt in such a short period of time.
3. The crime scene was destroyed. The main physical evidence, including the body, the shirt, the knife, the scissors, his shoes and underwear were absent. Why did the police remove the body before his family could view at it?
4. Notice of his death to his family was intentionally delayed. Qiaoxi Police Station officials claimed he died at 6:30 a.m. on May 31st. So, why didn't they notify us until 13 hours later at 7:30 p.m.? It was more than 24 hours past the time of his arrest. The time at which we saw his body was 35 hours past his death, at 5:30 p.m. on June 1st. It is unknown what had transpired during the intervening hours. The police also refused to issue the family an autopsy report.
5. Zhao, the deputy head of the Qiaoxi Police Station, and Yin, the political head took back their promise. On the morning of June 1, they said that the family could take pictures of the body if they were suspicious as to the cause of the death. Yet, such permission was withdrawn during our viewing of the body in the afternoon. Why?
6. Qiaoxi Police Station officials changed critical times and facts several times when recounting the death scenario. They gave several different versions of the time of death, time of detention, the food he ate, and so on. Once, the police claimed his short-sleeve shirt was torn into long strips, and later they said it wasn't torn.
7. The police was very rude to the victim's family and threatened them. When the family pointed out that Zhao, the deputy head of the police department, was lying, he flew into a rage and threatened, "You'll be sorry if you say that again!"
8. A short-sleeve shirt cannot account for the scars on the body. The scars are described differently in the coroner's report and based on a photo.
(1) When viewing the body, we saw a narrow scar on each side of his neck. The skin was gone and there was blood around the scars. There was no scar around his Adam's apple that would otherwise indicate a thin strip of cloth had been tied around it. The skin was intact. There were also wide tightening marks underneath his ears.
My questions are: A man's clothing in the summer time is usually soft and smooth. Mr. Zuo Zhigang's shirt was made of man-made fibre, not a coarse rope. How could it rub off the skin within a few minutes? According to statements from Qiaoxi Police Station officials, he killed himself while leaning forward. Therefore the front of his body stood the most weight. So why are there are no obvious scars around his Adam's Apple? If he hung himself with a shirt, he could have tied the ends of his shirt to make it into a loop, so the part of his shirt that came in contact with his neck could be the lower part of the shirt. He also could have twisted the shirt into a rope. If the first scenario is true, the scars should be thin. If the latter one is true, the scars should be wide. In any case, the scars should be even in width, which contradicts the fact that the scars on the body are of different widths.
(2) There were bumps on his left cheek and also under his ear, which apparently were caused by a blunt object. His whole right ear is dark blue. Why did the coroner miss these details in his report?
(3) The photo provided by the coroner shows the mark of abrasions on the back. The Qiaoxi Police Station officials claimed it was caused by the nails on the iron-barred door. However, when we went looked at the detention cell, we saw the nails on the door were spaced far apart and could not have caused the wounds shown in the photo. When we asked about this, Qiaoxi Police Station officials refused to answer.
When viewing the body, we saw two deep holes beside the spine on the lower back. They were about one inch apart and the size of chopsticks. They look suspiciously similar to the burn scar caused by an electric baton, and not at all like an abrasion wound. If he hung himself, the nails would have scratched his body vertically, yet the actual holes are the result of force asserted perpendicular to the body. The coroner could not explain these two holes.
We cannot help but ask:
How did Zuo Zhigang die? Why do the scars and wounds on his body, obviously caused by instruments, not fit the police report that he hung himself with a shirt? Why did the coroner fail to report truthfully? If he wanted to commit suicide, why would he kill himself at the police station not anywhere else?
If someone strangled him, who would it be? Maybe someone killed him by accident during torture and then hung his body on the door to make it appear as suicide to cover the facts.
Why did the police fail to notify the family immediately after he died? Why was the body sent directly to the crematory without the family's consent? In addition, the family was not given the opportunity to see the body at the police station.
Why was there such long delay before a coroner's report or technical report was sent to us? A total of two years and 41 days elapsed before the report was delivered to the family on July 11th, 2003. The death occurred on May 31st, 2001.
Why did the authorities at Qiaoxi Police Station repeatedly change their story? Why are there so many discrepancies in their story? The official(s) at the city police station said that the head of the Qiaoxi Police Department is not a well-qualified individual. Isn't there a possibility that a person like him would arbitrarily arrest people, carry out torture to obtain a confession, and that this would lead to death?
How many people were watching our son? Was it their responsibility to do the cleaning as well? Even if only one person was watching Zuo Zhigang, why didn't someone else take the monitor's place when the first person left the room? They are guilty of misconduct because they abandoned their post by leaving Zuo Zhigang all by himself.
The Qiaoxi Police Station personnel have refused to answer our questions and denied us access to the original death report. We do not understand. We appealed to the procuratorate, the Politics and Law Committee and the city police station many times, both verbally and in writing, but have yet to receive the technical report. The report claims "a large amount of" "Falun Gong" materials was found on Mr. Zuo Zhigang, which is untrue. There were two empty VCDs, one C drive disk, and one Happy Family software, which was confirmed by Mr. Zuo Zhigang's work unit. He also had an empty backpack. Where does the "large amount" come from? Another false claim made by the technical report is the time of arrest, which according to the report is 8:00 p.m.. But in fact the police went to Mr. Zuo Zhigang's work unit at around 3:00 p.m. on May 30th, when they deprived him of his personal freedom. This has also been confirmed by Mr. Zuo Zhigang's work unit. Under existing law, after no incriminating evidence was found, Mr. Zuo Zhigang should have been released at 3:00 a.m. the next day, yet police from the Qiaoxi Police Station detained him and caused his death. The shirt did not make these scars, and there were numerous wounds on the body. The Qiaoxi Police Station officials said Zuo Zhigang was "very stubborn," which makes extortion of confession through torture a highly viable option.
This case involves murder, and some individuals in the political and judicial departments are suspects.
1. We sincerely ask that the judicial departments above the provincial level file this case and ask an honest coroner who has excellent professional credentials perform another autopsy.
2. We further ask that representatives and the victim's family be notified of and be present at the autopsy. The current technical report is a product of the city procuratorate, the city police department and the Qiaoxi Police Department. The family was not present. This case happened in the Qiaoxi Police Station, yet the people from the police station were present. Staff from the Qiaoxi Police Station do not have the right to be present at the autopsy.
Since losing our son, Mr. Zuo Zhigang, who was the main source of income for our family, our lives have been very difficult. We all are suffering tremendous grief. Both my wife and I retired early for health reasons. My mother, who is in her late 80s, is living with us, and we also support our younger daughter who is unemployed. It has so far cost a lot of money to seek justice. We request that related government agencies compensate us, financially and emotionally. Life is most precious and cannot be measured with money, yet those who are still alive have to continue to live, however arduous it may be.
We especially ask related government agencies to assure that the Qiaoxi Police Station does not cremate Mr. Zuo Zhigang's body. As he died from unnatural cause(s), our family has many questions and we have the right to be told the facts and receive answers. We also have the right to ask higher governmental officials to perform another autopsy. We reserve the right to appeal and file lawsuits. Therefore, please do not cremate the body without the family's consent and before all legal venues are exhausted!
In the process of upholding our legal rights we will find the truth and restore justice, dignity for the law, and security for society. The long arm of the law will not miss a single culprit! Any and all perpetrators who violate the law as administrators of the law will be punished by the law!
Zuo Yaoxin, August 12th, 2003
Offices and personnel responsible for Mr. Zuo's death and phone numbers:
Qiaoxi District Police, 7 Xinghua Street, Shijiazhuang City 050000 86-311-87039977
Deputy Chief Zhao 86-311-87039977, 86-311-87024882
Responsible for persecuting Falun Gong. Tried to conceal Zuo Zhigang's case. He was extremely rude.
1) Li Zhensheng, Head of the Political & Security Team; 86-311-87039977
2) Hou Wenhua, policeman
Carry all responsibility for arrest.
Jiang Yugui and Liu Hui - both policemen 86-311-85188895, 86-311-87039977
Liu Zhongming, Police Department Head 86-311-87026381 (Office), 86-311-87039977, X7770;
Xinghua Street Police Station 86-311-87888193
Renamed -- Weiming Street Police Station - possibly out of fear to be punished for their crimes
Bai Yuanji, policeman 86-311-87888193
Claims to be responsible for Zuo Zhigang's case.
Wang Jianhua, head 86-13933028533 (Mobile), 86-311-83016048 (Home),
Offices and legal medical examiner that provided the false autopsy report
Gu Jianping, legal medical examiner
Shijiazhuang City Police Department,
83 Minzu Road, Shijiazhuang City 86-311-87019777
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/6/10/156624.html
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