Twelve people convicted for their involvement in the beating to death of a young man in police detention had their appeal rejected at the Guangdong Province's Higher People's Court on Friday.
The court in the south China province upheld the decision earlier this month of the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on the sentences of death or imprisonment for the 12 for their roles in the death of 27-year-old Sun Zhigang, from Wuhan City, Hubei Province.
Sun was beaten do death on the night of March 19 in a police clinic, an investigation by the court found.
Qiao Yanqin, an attendant at the clinic, was sentenced to death for organizing the beating.
On March 17, Sun Zhigang, who had been found without any ID by the police, was detained at the Guangzhou Police Holding Center.
On the night of March 18, Sun told the police that he was suffering a heart attack and was sent to the center's clinic.
On the night of March 19, Sun shouted loudly for help, disturbing clinic attendant Qiao Yanqin who organized eight other detainees to beat Sun in turn. Sun was found unconscious and died on the morning of March 20 despite receiving medical treatment.
Li Haiying, one of the eight detainees who beat Sun, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
Zhong Liaoguo, another detainee who beat Sun, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The other nine, including three clinic attendants and six detainees, who conspired to assault or assaulted Sun, were jailed for terms of three to 15 years.
Meanwhile, six officials in the police center, including Li Yaohui, former chief of the Huangcun Street Police Station, and deputy head of the clinic doctor Zhang Yaohui, were sentenced to jail terms of two or three years for dereliction of duty.
Sun had been working for the Daqi Garment Co., Ltd. in Guangzhou and held both residency and identification documents, but he did not have the documents on him when he was arrested.
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2003)
