[Translation by Human Rights in China]

I haven’t seen Huang Qi for three months. Originally, I had planned to see him after reviewing the case files. But after all this waiting, the permission to review the files never came. Although I haven’t been able to read the files, I still have to inform Huang and see how he is doing.

I arrived at the Mianyang Municipal Detention Center before of 9:00 a.m. on November 3, 2017.

I waited until 10:00 a.m. before I was allowed in.

We met in the same old place. Huang came out, and appeared more energetic than last time. He looked a bit thinner; the swelling was gone. The first thing Huang did was to roll up his pants and show me a big bruise on the inside of his left calf. He said that the mark was left by his cellmates who were egged on by a police official at the Center named Yang Maorong to beat him many times between October 24 and October 26. Yang once yelled at Huang in his cell: “I don’t believe I can’t put you in your place.” Because the news had gotten out that Huang, sick, was being forced to stand up and be on duty for four to six hours a day, higher-level cadres of the detention center came to learn more information, but their visit led to nothing.

Apart from being beaten, Huang was suffering from discrimination at the center, where all detainees are allowed to buy high-priced, better food to supplement their nutrition, but not him. He had no idea how much money his mother and other people sent him. Except for toothpaste and toothbrushes, the restrictions apply also to other daily necessities, including toilet paper, forcing him to use water to clean himself up every time he went to the toilet. Huang asked me to have his mother try to get back the money she deposited at the detention center for him. If it refuses to return the money, she should sue the detention center.

Huang told me that a police officer at the detention center told him that the poor treatment he is getting is a result of demands from the case-handling unit. How long can he hold on for, with his heart condition, kidney inflammation, and liver cysts?

Huang also told me that on August 1, after I last saw him, two case-handling police officers, Luo Bing and Zhang Hui, came to the detention center to interrogate him more than ten times, at either an office or a conference room. They asked Huang to confess or otherwise face 12 to 15 years in prison. Huang not only maintained his innocence, but also claimed the officers fabricated evidence to incriminate him, pointing out repeatedly that the case-handling police officers have no right to interrogate him when the procuratorate is still conducting an investigation for an indictment.

It was 1:00 p.m. when I left the detention center for the Mianyang Municpal Procuratorate, with the aim to meet with the prosecutor and file a complaint against the detention center. The Procuratorate officials were in a meeting and a girl who claimed to be on Huang’s prosecutor’s team finally came out to see me. I made two points to her. First, it is not possible for Huang to have committed any crime, since the so-called secret documents that formed the basis of Huang’s arrest were in fact not classified as secrets when Huang first saw them. The classification of “top secret” was added retroactively.

Second, I said I hoped to review the case files as soon as possible, as Huang told me that the Procuratorate’s deadline [for accepting the case for indictment] is November 12. The girl agreed to relay what I told her, but said that as for the deadline, there was still time because the case could be sent back to the police for further investigation one more time.

Afterwards, I met with the prosecutor stationed at the detention center and asked him to supervise the improvement of the management of the detention center, and prohibit the police officers handling a case from interrogating a detainee while the procuratorate is still reviewing the case for prosecution. As for the beating of Huang and discrimination against him, the prosecutor agreed to investigate. I am hoping for the good news.

Li Jingling, Lawyer at Beijing Xinqiao Law Firm

November 4, 2017