Police officers suspended after inmate death
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Three police officers have been suspended after an inmate drowned in a laundry at a detention center in central China's Hubei Province, police said Monday.
Xue Hongfu, 55, was found dead in a 0.12 cubic meter basin filled with water at a detention center in Gong'an County, Jingzhou City, Wednesday, a statement released by the provincial public security department said.
Xue was detained on March 27 for stealing a bicycle from a supermarket and was sentenced to 15 days in the detention center. He was also fined 1,000 yuan (147 U.S. dollars).
The deputy head of the bureau, the head of the detention center and the police officer on-duty at the time of the incident have been suspended from work as an investigation into the matter continues, the statement said without revealing the suspended officers' names.
A team comprising officials from the provincial procuratorate and public security department are investigating the case.
No further details of the investigation was released.
"The people found responsible for the incident will be severely punished according to law," the statement said.
Xue is the latest detainee death in China. In a separate case, a 52-year-old education official died on March 26 in a procuratorate in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Wei Jingling, an official with the education bureau in Zhaoyang District, Zhaotong City, committed suicide after becoming suspected of bribery. Murder was ruled out, police said Monday.
She sustained a fatal knife wound to the heart, police said.
Five procuratorate officials were suspended from their posts for not strictly following the procedures of the Supreme People's Procuratorate regarding the proper handling of suspects in custody, which led to Wei's death.
