Local authorities sealed off the township of Yesanguan, Badong county, Hubei province on May 28 to block supporters of the waitress named Deng Yujiao, who had been coming to the town. Several reporters were also beaten when they went to the town to follow the case. The town seems to be under martial law, though no formal announcement has been made.
On the night of May 31, the regime’s mouth piece, Xinhua Net, published an article saying that the local county party discipline committee and legal supervision department would deal seriously with the people related to the case.
One and a half hours later, the local regime released the final police investigation report. The official statements about this incident have given different versions of what happened. This report made further changes to key details. It also changed the charge being brought against Deng from murder to “excessive self defense.”
The initial report said the regime cadres “pushed down” Deng. This was changed to “pushed to sit” and then this report claimed the cadres “pushed around” Deng.
The initial report said that regime cadre Huang Dezhi had requested that Deng provide “sexual services.” This was changed to a “sexual bath”, which, in this latest report, became a request that Deng “accompany Huang for a bath.”
The Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan commented on the changes, saying that pushing someone down is an action that could be involved in rape, which is a major crime; pushing someone to sit could be viewed as only an insult, a minor crime; and pushing someone around only violates public security regulations and is not a crime.
According to some Chinese bloggers, nine days after the attempted rape happened on May 10, the Hebei provincial party committee and party legal and political committee already knew exactly what had happened. The bloggers claim that, in addition to the three low level cadres who have been implicated, a high-level cadre was also involved or present during the incident.
However, according to the bloggers, in order to cover up the involvement of the high-level cadre, the local police have repeatedly changed the investigation report. As part of the cover up, the local authorities accused Deng of having mental problems and locked her into a police-controlled mental hospital where she was tied to a bed for five days.
Deng’s situation changed only after a local TV station happened to broadcast pictures of her tied to the hospital bed.
The regime now claims that Deng has been released from the detention center and was under house arrest. But except for a video released by state-run media showing Deng having a meal with her family, there has been no confirmation of the regime’s claim. No other media has had a chance to contact her.
