E/CN.4/2000/9 page 48 forced to answer only "yes" or "no" to the accusations against him and reportedly was beaten whenever he answered "no." He allegedly admitted to the crime in order to stop the beatings. He was reportedly originally sentenced to death, but in May 1996, though his conviction was upheld, his death sentence was suspended. Wen Shaorong reportedly suffered a broken collar bone and a torn ear as a result of the torture he allegedly received while in detention. He is still in prison serving his sentence. Yao Zekun was allegedly read a pre-prepared confession and whenever he answered that it was not correct he was reportedly beaten. During his five days of detention he was allegedly given only two pieces of bread and nothing to drink. During the investigation, the Intermediate People's Court judges reportedly admitted that they had suspected the confessions had been obtained by force, but when they received a written response from the police denying that torture had taken place, they are reported to have been satisfied. Nevertheless, 10 policemen were reportedly disciplined for their part in the affair, four sacked, and one transferred. 213. Fan Zhen, wife of Zhu Shengwen, former deputy mayor of Harbin, on behalf of whom the Special Rapporteur intervened in September 1998 (see E/CN.4/1999/61, para. 115), was reportedly detained a few days after her husband's arrest, in October 1996. She was reportedly arrested without an arrest warrant by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and charged with "hiding [her] husband's crimes". She was reportedly interrogated on the fifth floor of SIT headquarters. She was allegedly locked into a cast-iron chair called the laohudeng, the "tiger chair", for two days and was slapped and spit upon by three men reportedly interrogating her and asking her to confess her husband's crimes. She was then transferred to No. 2 Detention Centre in Harbin where she was detained in an overcrowded cell allegedly infested with rats and lice. She allegedly received inadequate food and was not allowed to speak to other inmates. She was not allowed to meet with her lawyers until five days before her trial on 16 June 1998. She was reportedly sentenced on 19 October 1998 to one year and eight months' imprisonment at the Harbin Detention Centre. 214. Abdul Helil, a Uighur man, was reportedly detained in the Xinjiang Uighut Autonomous Region after leading a demonstration in Gulja in February 1997. He was allegedly coerced with torture to confess to accusations against him and to denounce his friends. In mid-1998 he was reportedly held at the 4th Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a military institution. 215. Zhou Guiyi, Xiao Beizhou and Yu Li were allegedly beaten to death while in police custody, Xinzhou county in Hubei province, between April 1997 and February 1998. The families of these individuals reportedly received compensation for their loss. However, no legal inquiry has been reportedly made into the allegations. 216. Dongjie Liu, a major in the China Air Force stationed in Changchun, was reportedly arrested on 11 August 1998. His wife was reportedly informed by police security officers that he had died on 13 August 1998. He was allegedly burned to death after being tortured by Chinese Air Force security officers and tortured with batons and electric shock. It is believed that he left a letter regarding the torture to which he was allegedly subjected. No death certificate was reportedly issued. In September 1998, Dongjie Liu's brother-in-law asked the Chief Prosecutor of Shenyang Air Force to open an inquiry, but the latter is reported to have refused. In December 1998, his brother-in-law was finally told that an investigation would be conducted. The findings of this investigation, which is said to have been conducted in February/March 1998, are the following: