Society

Family of dead girl wants higher justice

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-27 08:20

BEIJING - Three weeks after the death of a 16-year-old girl, who jumped from a hotel in Central China's Hunan province after being sexually offended by five men, including two local police officers, the victim's family on Sunday planned to petition to a higher authority for an independent investigation.

The local police bureau in Fenghuang county canceled its scheduled press conference on Sunday, and did not release the results of the second autopsy, which is expected to verify if the girl had been raped by the group or just molested when being kept for 45 minutes in a hotel room on Sept 4.

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The family of the victim, who said they had "lost hope in local authorities", on Sunday arrived in the provincial capital of Changsha and planned to petition to the provincial public security department for an independent investigation.

"The county's judicial authorities have been very slow in investigating the case and we don't trust them," said Qiu Changpeng, 21, brother of the victim from Futu township of the neighboring Hubei province.

According to the latest announcement released by the Fenghuang county government on Sept 24, five people, including two police officers, were arrested on the charge of rape.

An earlier government announcement released on Sept 21 said the suspects molested the girl, surnamed Qiu, several times and intended to have sexual intercourse with her. But Qiu escaped from the room and jumped out of a window on the ninth floor corridor.

The girl died on the scene. She was a migrant worker in a garment factory in Zhejiang province before the incident.

The girl's brother told China Daily on Sunday over the phone that the family was not informed until two days after his sister's death, and they were only told the result of the first autopsy on Sept 9, rather than being shown a written copy.

"The doctor told us the autopsy shows my sister's hymen was broken a long time ago, and was not freshly harmed. But we don't believe that," Qiu Changpeng said.

"Local authorities told us to come for negotiation only when we accept the immediate cremation of my sister's body," Qui said.

Both publicity departments for the Fenghuang public security bureau and Fenghuang Party committee turned down China Daily's request for an interview.

According to earlier government announcements, the girl and her friends were visiting Fenghuang, known for its tourism, and had dined and drank alcohol with the suspects in a restaurant and in a karaoke bar on Sept 4.

The victim was then carried on a man's back into the hotel's elevator and her girlfriend was assisted by four men at 5:57 pm, according to hotel video footage.

At 6:43 pm, the victim was shown running out of the room but dragged back into the room by two men.

The announcement said the victim jumped out of the hotel window at about 7 pm.