A Communist Party of China (CPC) official in Anhui Province claimed yesterday that a 24-year-old man reported to have died in police custody on March 2 from a heart attack after being refused medical treatment actually died of acute meningitis in hospital.

Han Guoyi, deputy director of the local CPC Politics and Law Committee, also alleged to China Daily that the dispute with land management officials that had been behind Gao Shuai's detention took place because he had been prevented from building on arable land.

These assertions contradict previous reports of the events leading up to the death of the farmer from Guanji Town in Taihe County, which is still being investigated over 4 months later.

According to Xinhua News Agency, his neighbors said Gao had often reported to the local bureau of land management that some households in his village had been built illegally on arable land, and that while awaiting a reply from them he was attacked by bureau staff.

Wang Jihong, one of Gao's neighbors, said that on September 10 last year, when Gao told bureau staff Wang Xinzhi and Wang Deyong about illegal buildings on the roadside, they attacked him in a beating that lasted for about 20 minutes.

"Gao was seriously injured with blood on his face, but he did not fight back," said Ju Wenlan, another neighbor. Another villager Ji Xiuling called Gao's two brothers to help. The two groups came to blows, and Wang Xinzhi was also injured.

Public security bureau officers took Gao into custody from his home on February 6. On the 18th day of his detention, Gao's lawyer discovered that arrest documents had not been sent to the local procuratorate, or even the county level public security bureau.

According to procedure, once a suspect is detained, the case must be referred to the procuratorate for investigation, who must then decide within seven days whether to file charges.

Gao was sent to hospital before his death where doctors diagnosed a heart attack and recommended that he be hospitalized, but detention officials refused.

On March 2, police informed his wife, Wang Caihong, that he had died of a heart attack while in custody.

Chen Jie, head of the local public security bureau, was later arrested for dereliction of duty, apparently for not referring Gao's case to the procuratorate.

Xinhua reported that while Gao was in detention, Chen had taken money from Gao's family to compensate Wang Xinzhi on the understanding that this would result in his release. On June 20, a relative of him also reportedly offered Gao's family money not to sue him for any part he may have played in Gao's death.

How Han's assertions to China Daily can be reconciled with witnesses' accounts or to the police's notice of death to Gao's widow is unclear, but he maintained that "anyone guilty of wrongdoing in the case will be punished."

(China Daily July 6, 2005)