Communist party’s secretive judicial system laid bare in torture case
As Yu Qiyi’s interrogation entered its 39th day, officials from the Chinese Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog debated how to get a confession out of the detained man, the chief engineer at a state-owned firm in eastern Wenzhou city.
One official noted he had forced Yu’s head under water the night before. A day later, Yu died after being dunked repeatedly in a bucket of ice-cold water.
Six officials were convicted last month of torturing Yu to death. Testimony given in the case, seen by Reuters, illustrates the brutality of a secretive detention system for party members and the drive to get confessions as President Xi Jinping presses on with an aggressive anti-corruption campaign.
Lawyers say the case - highly unusual because Yu’s interrogators were charged - also renews questions about the legality of the process given rampant abuses in the system.
If there are more corruption investigations, there is greater use of shuanggui
The party introduced the detention system, called , in 1990 to weed out corrupt members as the temptation to take bribes sky-rocketed on the back of China’s nascent economic boom.
Detentions can last indefinitely, with family members often kept in the dark about the fate of their loved ones.
