Two police arrested for fatal street fight beating

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-11-19  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

TWO police officers involved in a fatal street fight have been arrested for intentionally inflicting injuries that led to the death of a 22-year-old man in northeastern China's Harbin City last month.

The city's public security bureau confirmed that prosecutors ratified the arrests of Liu Linan, an officer at the headquarters of the Harbin Railway Public Security Bureau, and Qi Xin, deputy chief of the bureau's criminal investigation brigade, on Friday.

Lu Hongxi, deputy director of the Harbin Police Bureau, said the two officers were in custody at the city public security bureau's detention house.

Prosecutors said the pair were among six local police involved in a fight with Lin Songling and his friends in front of a nightclub on October 11 in Harbin.

Lin is alleged to have chided one of the police officers for speeding, sparking the brawl. Lin was later found dead at the scene and several others from both sides were injured.

The six police, aged between 28 and 31, allegedly drove to the bar after a private get-together and were not wearing police uniforms. All of them were taken into custody and questioned in the 12 hours after the fight.

Lu said Yang Sen, a friend of Lin's, was also arrested for injuring two police involved in the fight, Li Xinyu and Wang Jingang.

Yang, 22 years old and unemployed, is alleged to have fractured bones in Li's left eye and four of Wang's ribs. Lu said officers Li, Wang, Luan Ao and Li Feng were on bail as investigators said a 36-minute surveillance video tape of the fight did not prove they contributed to Lin's death.