Society
Family questions cause of ex-official's death
By Lan Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-22 08:33
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Family members of Hunan province's former Wugang city deputy mayor, who died last month, are applying to the Ministry of Public Security for a re-investigation of the alleged suicide case, saying the facts show that he was murdered.
"I'm determined to demand a reasonable explanation for what happened to my husband as long as I have breath," Liu Yuehong, widow of Yang Kuansheng, told China Daily yesterday.
Yang, a 47-year-old deputy mayor of Wugang in Hunan, was found dead at about 6 am on Nov 26 outside a government dormitory building where he lived in the city.
Provincial officials said that Yang tried to commit suicide by various methods and finally jumped out of his dormitory window, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported early this month.
Yang used knives and scissors to cut his wrist and other parts of his body. He also tried to electrocute himself but failed. Exhausted from losing so much blood, Yang jumped off the third floor of his building, Kang Wenxiang, chief of Wugang public security bureau, was quoted as saying.
There was no evidence suggesting that someone broke into Yang's dorm, and there were no footprints from anyone else. Also, no bruises were found on Yang's body, which would indicate a struggle, Kang said.
Yang suffered from depression for six months before his death, Zeng Zhaoxun, the spokesman for the Wugang city government, was quoted as saying.
"My belief that Yang was murdered by someone else became much stronger when I went to his dorm on Dec 5 for the first time after his death. The things I saw there are different from what the police investigation found," said Liu Yuehong, who is a doctor in Shaoyang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.
She then sought help from Teng Biao, a Beijing lawyer and a teacher at China University of Political Science and Law.
Teng helped Liu by sending the local police investigation report and autopsy report to several legal and forensic experts in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
"After a probe into the case and experts' analyses, we found 19 questionable details," Teng told China Daily yesterday.
Wugang police bureau released the investigation report on Nov 27 and the autopsy report on Nov 28, saying Yang killed himself. The conclusion was made quickly after Yang's death, which seemed too rash, he said. Liu was not with Yang when the incident happened as they worked and lived in different cities.
Liu quoted Yang's last words, written in a letter: "I didn't do anything wrong, didn't accept their bribes, didn't want to die those who want me to die are from Shaodong."
Yang was born in Shaoyang suburb's Jinpen village and was a teacher in the village.
"It is well known that Yang and some officials from Shaodong county were having disagreements," the Beijing News yesterday quoted Luo Qian, a former student of Yang's.
Family members are asking the Impeaching Center of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security to re-investigate.
Zou Qing contributed to the story
