The charges against the four men included criminal abuse of power. The four admitted using torture to extract a confession from 19-year-old student Xu Gengrong. He was detained on 1 March of this year for allegedly taking part in the murder of a female student. He died from injuries he suffered during seven days of detention.

Local authorities tried to cover up the whole affair. When Xu’s family saw the body, they found clear evidence of torture. In order to convince them to remain silent, local Communist leaders gave Xu’s father US$ 17,500 for funeral costs, promising other “benefits” for the whole family.

On 28 March, the official autopsy found that he had “died of a heart problem, trauma and fatigue”. However, the young man’s family refused to give up. They dug up his body, put it into a refrigerated coffin and pushed for a further investigation.

A second autopsy found that Xu had abrasions, swollen wrists and bleeding inside the skull. A medical practitioner who took part in the examination believed Xu did receive food or drink for a long while because only 10 millilitres of liquid were found in his stomach.

Locals joined the family to demand justice. An internal investigation pointed the finger at six police officers for killing the young man.

Now however the verdict has reignited the controversy, partly because 15 other people also died between January and March of this year. Seven of them were beaten to death; three committed suicide and two died in “accidents”. The cases of the other three are still under investigation.

A United Nations investigation into China’s prison system found that torture was widely used.  Although Beijing pledged to take action to stamp out abuses of power by local police, many “confessions” used to convict and sentence religious leaders and civil rights activists remain highly suspicious.