Twenty-four people have been questioned by police in connection
with the beating to death of a man filming a conflict between
parapolice urban administration personnel and villagers in central
China's Hubei Province, local government said Tuesday.
Wei Wenhua, 41, general manager of a Tianmen City construction
firm, was beaten to death Monday afternoon when he was trying to
record with his cell phone a clash between more than 50 staff of
the Tianmen urban administration bureau and residents of Wanba
village.
Wang Shutang, the company's party chief who was in the same car
with Wei when the incident happened, said the urban administration
staff continued to beat Wei for several minutes even after he had
surrendered his cell phone.
The villagers had refused a garbage vehicle from a sanitation
branch of the bureau to dump garbage at the garbage site near the
village.
Doctors said Wei had stopped breathing when he was sent to the
No. 1 People's Hospital in Tianmen.
Bie Bixiong, Communist Party chief of Tianmen, said the
murderers would be seriously punished according to law and those
with dereliction of duty would also be held accountable.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)