On June 21 this year, Li Siyi, the daughter of a heroin-addicted mother, was found alone in an apartment in Chengdu having starved to death. Her mother, Li Guifang, 39, had been caught stealing and police had sent her to the Compulsory Drug Quitting Center of Chengdu Public Security Bureau for 17 days. However, even though Li told the police about her daughter, they failed to inform her neighbors or relatives so the child was left to starvation.

The death of Li Siyi soon became a topic of controversy in China and was hotly debated in the nation¡s chatroom. Most people were angry and disappointed, and many accused the police of being abusers of authority who care little for the people they are supposed to be protecting.

On July 1st, Wang Xin, the former deputy director of Chengjiao Police Station and Huang Xiaobing, Wang¡¯s subordinate, were arrested.Beijing Today covered the event on July 9.

¡°I got down on my knees and pleaded with Wang to allow me to return home to release my daughter tomy relatives before being taken to the detention center. But he didn¡¯t pay any attention to me at all. A policeman pushed me into the car and told me they would send me to a compulsory drug quitting center,¡± Li¡¯s testny reads.

A court hearing in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, attracted nationwide attention last Thursday. The defendants were two policemen, charged with negligence in the case of the death of a three-year-old girl.

Police forgot the Child

In the afternoon of June 4 this year, Li Guifang left her daughter at home and went to the nearby Jintang County to steal in order to get money to buy drugs. After being captured by Huang Xiaobing, Li Guifang confessed her crime.

After a routine examination, Li was found to be a drug taker and she was immediately sent to the Compulsory Drug Quitting Center of Chengdu Public Security Bureau.

¡°I didn¡¯t know that Li Guifang had a three-year-old daughter at home alone until she told me on our way to the drug quitting center at about 10 pm that day,¡± said the first defendant Wang Xin in court. ¡°If I had known earlier, I would have taken action.¡±

However, Wang¡¯s testimony contradicted that of both Li and Huang Xiaobing. Huang said in court that he¡¯d told Wang about Li¡¯s daughter in the afternoon thaty.

According to Wang¡¯s testimony, on the way to the compulsory drug quitting center, he asked a colleague, Lu Xiaohui, to call Li¡¯s elder sister Li Defang and tell her to get the little girl. Lu called but didn¡¯t get ough so Wang asked him to call Tuanjiecun Police Station, which is in charge of the area where Li Guifang lived.

¡°We asked them to inform Li¡¯s sister at once and they promised they would. Li appreciated our efforts vermuch and then calmed down,¡± said Wang in the court.

However, it was not until the evening of June 21, when Li Guifang¡¯s neighbor smelled a terrible odor and called police, that the incident was brought to light. When poice officers broke through the door and entered the house, they found the dead child in the bedroom.

Li¡¯s testimony

Li Guifang didn¡¯t attend the hearing so her testimony was read out by the public prosecutor.

According to Li¡¯s testimony, she told Wang about her child before they left Chengjiao Police Station for the drug quitting center.

¡°I got down on my knees and pleaded with Wang to allow me to return home to release my daughter tomy relatives before being taken to the detention center. But he didn¡¯t pay any attention to me at all. A policeman pushed me into the car and told me they would send me to a compulsory drug quitting center,¡± Li¡¯s testny reads.When the police car passed through Qingbaijiang District where Li Guifang lived, she began to cry and shouted at them to let her see her daughter. She says it was then that Wang decided to call Lu Xiaohui and get him to call Li¡¯s elder sister.

After he failed to get through to Li¡¯s sister, Lu called Tuanjiecun Police station. According to the public prosecutor, Mu Yu, a student policeman having his internship atthe station, called Li Defang several times but no one answered the phone. Mu did not report this to the police station management staff or keep any phone call record. The matter was forgotten.

Mu Yu, the student policeman, was later expelled from his study program after the tragedy came to light.

Different attitudes in court

¡°It was my duty to tak Li Guifang to the compulsory drug quitting center, not to take care of her family,¡± said Wang in court. ¡°I had already called Tuanjiecun Police Station and asked them to inform her relatives. That¡¯s all that I can doou know, I also care about the little girl. She was innocent,¡± said Wang.Wang didn¡¯t think it was necessary for him to call the Tuanjiecun Police Station the second day to confirm whether they had contacted Li¡¯s relates.

In court, the public prosecutor suggested that it wasn¡¯t an excessive demand for Li to ask to go home to make sure her daughter was okay before being taken to the drug center. Wang disagreed. ¡°As far as I know, drutakers should be taken to the quitting center as soon as possible.¡± Wang denied that Li had begged him to let her go home and release her daughter.

During the hearing on Thursday last week, Wang interrupted the public prosecutor over ten times. But Huang Xiaobing, the second defendant in the case, said no more than 10 sentences during the hearing. He hung his head and frequently wept.

Huang admitted it was his fault that he didn¡¯t delver a notice about Li¡¯s incarceration to her relatives. Otherwise Li Siyi would have been found in time.

According to the Procedures for Compulsory Drug Addiction Rehabilitation issued by the State Council on 1995, drug takers must be rehabilitated by attending quitting centers. The law also stipulates that the addict¡¯s family, employer and local police station must be notified within three days of their being sent to such a center. Hwever, these regulations were ignored by the policemen involved in this case.

When asked about the indictment read out by the public prosecutor, Huang responded, ¡°I was a common policeman who just fulfilled the order ofmy leader.¡±

¡°Unlike Wang, Huang didn¡¯t apply for release pending trial,¡± Niu Jianguo, Huang¡¯s lawyer tBeijing Youth Daily after the hearing. ¡°He¡¯s said he wants to stay in detention to atone for his crime.

Surprising suggestion

To the surprise of the court, Wang¡¯s lawyer Yang Dahua raised the possibility that the little girl was already dead when her mother left to go and steal. ¡°When Li Siyi was found, she had been dead over 10ays, which means there is a possibility that she died before June 4.¡±.

However, even Huang¡¯s lawyer Niu Jianguo though this was unlikely. ¡°If Li killed her own daughter, why would she have cried and shouted to go and reease her?¡±

When the public prosecutor mentioned Li¡¯s distressed pleas to go and get her daughter, Wang¡¯s lawyer said he didn¡¯t believe a word of Li¡¯s testimony. ¡°Li has a long history of taking drugs and she doesn¡¯ know who her daughter¡¯s father is. It¡¯s normal for these kinds of people to lie.¡±

After the hearing, the public prosecutor told Xinmin Weekly, a local magazine in Shanghai, that the lawsuit against Wang and Huang was just the first step. Other policemen from Tuanjiecun Police Station and Chengjiao Police Station including Lu Xiaohui and Mu Yu are still being investigated.

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