Shishou Court jails Five after June Riots

石首市 — Shishou People’s Court, Hunan Province, has handed down jail sentences from 2.5 to five years on Saturday, against five defendants who were allegedly involved in the Shishou riots of June this year.

The riots had started after the death of Tu Yuangao (涂远高), a twenty-four year old chef at Shishou’s Yonglongda Hotel (永隆大酒店). He had been found in front of the hotel, and official findings suggested that he had committed suicide by leaping from a high buidling (apparently a reference to the hotel building itself).

Tu’s relatives doubted the findings, and accused the authorities of untimely cremating his body, thus eliminating evidence. In contrast, the authorities’ version was that Tu’s relatives had declined an autopsy, which police had actually urged for.

Protests and riots, reportedly with tens of thousands participating at peak times, started during the following days. The authorities accused relatives of Tu, among them his cousin (elder female cousin, 堂姐) Tu Xiaoyu (涂晓玉) and his older brother Tu Yuanhua (涂远华) of “organizing and instigating trouble” (“组织、煽动闹事”), with the goal of enforcing compensation from the hotel, i. e. Tu Yuangao’s former employer.

Official statistics counted 62 injured police officers, sixteen damaged or destroyed police cars, fire or other damage on the sites of Yonglong Hotel, Shishou Disease Control Center (probably the site of the crematory), and Bijiashan Police station (笔架山派出所).

There were rumors that Tu Yuangao had been killed, and thrown from a window of the hotel so as to make his death look like suicide, and others which alleged that hotel stakeholders had been involved in drug trafficking. The allegation was denied by the local government.

Xinhua reportedly quotes a municipal party committee official from Jingzhou (荆州市) as saying that as the riots erupted along with Tu Yuangao’s unnatural death, Shishou’s former municipal committee secretary (or party secretary)  Zhong Ming (钟鸣) didn’t become aware of the details of the death case details in time, and therefore didn’t handle it with the ideal timing (错过了事件处置的最佳时间).

Zhong Ming lost his job along with municipal party committee permanent committee member Tang Dunwu (唐敦武) in July.

Tu Yuangao’s family obtained a  RMB 80,000, compensation, jointly paid by the Yonglongda Hotel, the Shishou city government, and Gaojimiao town government (高基庙镇政府).

The Global Times understands that an autopsy and X-rays and tests for poisons carried out by experts from the Ministry of Public Security and Tongji Medical Institute showed Tu committed suicide.

Among the five defendants given a jail term is Tu Xiaoyu, while Tu Yuanhua is among the five defendants either exempted from jail, or on probation (而涂远华等五人则被判处有期徒刑缓刑或被免予刑事处罚).

This information is based on the BBC’s report of today, if not linked otherwise.

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Related:
The Social Mosaic of Shishou, EastSouthWestNorth, July 31, 2009

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