China's police start drive to end inmate deaths

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's police will start a three-month campaign to eliminate "unnatural deaths" of inmates, the Ministry of Public Security said, after a series of deaths threatens the removal of detention centres from police control.

A 50-year-old inmate at a detention centre in Jiangxi province died "after having a nightmare," a local newspaper said this week, marking at least the sixth suspicious death of an inmate since January, when police claimed that a prisoner beaten to death by other prisoners was killed in a game of "hide-and-seek."

The Ministry of Justice, which operates prisons, has proposed that the management of detention centres be taken away from the Ministry of Public Security, on the grounds that police allow bullying by favoured prisoners and are inclined to torture prisoners to extract confessions.

"Police authorities across the country must learn from the recent death of Li Qiaoming (the "hide-and-seek" victim) in the southwestern province of Yunnan, and make sure a similar incident does not happen again," the ministry said in a notice on its website seen Thursday.

The justice ministry urged local authorities to educate police officers at prisons and detention centres during the three-month campaign to boost professional ethics, awareness of the law and respect for human rights.

"Officials should bravely reveal problems in the management of prisons and detention centres, and should redouble efforts to address them," the ministry said.

Chinese law allows people to be detained for months without charge, and relies heavily on confessions once cases arrive in court.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Valerie Lee)