Officers punished over custody death

A Beijing police officer has been fired and another removed from his post after a man choked to death in custody in May.

Xing Yongrui, deputy director of Dongxiaokou police station in Changping district, has been sacked and expelled from the Party, the capital's Public Security Bureau said on Thursday.

The station director, Zhou Shuaimin, has also been removed from his post and given a warning for incompetence in performing his duties, it said.

The punishments come just days after prosecutors decided not to press criminal charges against Xing and other police personnel after the death of Lei Yang, a Beijing environmental protection worker, on May 7.

The 29-year-old was detained on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute during a raid on a massage parlor in a residential community. He was handcuffed and placed in a van, but soon officers noticed he was unconscious.

Lei was taken to hospital, but died a few hours later. An independent autopsy report released on June 30 said he had choked on his own vomit.

Kong Lei, a police officer at Dongxiaokou police station who took part in the raid, has been reassigned to a position with no law enforcement duties, the public security bureau said.

(China Daily 12/30/2016 page4)