Family demands RMB1.28m after suspect dies in Hainan custody

The family of a criminal suspect who died at a police station in south China's Hainan Province demanded a compensation payment of 1.28 million yuan (200,000 U.S. dollars) Tuesday, as they have doubts about the nature of his death.

Huang Guohui, 34, was taken to a police station in the city of Dongfang on the morning of Aug. 12. He was found dead in an interrogation room just hours later.

The city's public security bureau declared his death to be a suicide by hanging, as surveillance video footage showed that Huang was left alone in the room while two officers went out for lunch.

However, Huang's brother Peng Xiaojian, who was allowed to identify the body of Huang at a local hospital, claimed that bruises on Huang's thighs and head have led his family to believe that Huang was beaten and hanged by police officers.

Zhu Haifeng, an official in charge of law enforcement affairs in Dongfang, said Huang was being interrogated after turning himself in for the rape of a woman in east China's Zhejiang Province, claiming that the woman's relatives were trying to hunt him down.

Officers said that Huang was visibly trembling while being interrogated and was speaking nonsense, leading them to believe that he was mentally ill, Zhu said.

Autopsy results have yet to be released and a further investigation into Huang's death is under way, he said.