Bao'an District authorities have punished 26 police officers who were found guilty of illegally detaining and beating three innocent civilians.

Details were announced at a government meeting Monday.

One officer was detained for 15 days, 10 were dismissed and another will face criminal charges. The rest were publicly criticized.

On July 4, three men from Zhanjiang City in Guangdong Province, went to look for friends. When they knocked on the door of police officer Tang Siyan's house, Tang's family mistook them for burglars and called police.

Tang and four other policemen arrived, allegedly beat the three men and took away their belongings. The three were then detained at the police station for more than one day. They were again allegedly beaten by Tang. At 11:45 p.m. July 5, the three were released from custody after it was confirmed that they were not burglars. By then, the detention had exceeded the legal detention time limit by more than two hours. Suspects may be legally detained for 24 hours.

The police officers' superiors had allegedly been trying to cover up the case until it was exposed by the media.

(Shenzhen Daily August 6, 2003)