FEBRUARY 7, 2014, 5:59 AM
Xue Mingkai, whose father, Xue Fushun, died under disputed circumstances.
Associated Press Photo
Chinese human rights lawyers have raised questions about the death of an activist’s father who fell from a government building while under detention in late January. The authorities have told family members that Xue Fushun committed suicide by jumping from the fourth story of a procurator’s office building in the city of Qufu in the northeastern province of Shandong.
Family members and other supporters have called Mr. Xue’s death suspicious and say that he might have been killed in detention.
“The authorities in Qufu or higher up in Shandong should objectively and impartially investigate and explain so that average people can understand whether this is a case of suicide or homicide,” said Tang Jitian, a lawyer based in Beijing.
Xue Fushun, 52, is the father of Xue Mingkai, 24, who was sentenced to prison in 2010 for joining the banned China Democracy Party and again in 2012 for “inciting subversion of state power.” After being released in September 2013, Xue Mingkai was routinely put under house arrest and subjected to police pressure, according to an open letter from 30 rights activists and lawyers.
Xue Mingkai’s parents were detained in late January at a guesthouse in Qufu, a city best known as the hometown of Confucius. Mr. Tang said their detention was probably an effort to pressure their son to return to Qufu. Xue Mingkai’s whereabouts are unclear. Neither he nor his mother, Wang Shuqing, could be reached for comment. Both of their mobile phones were turned off Friday.
Xue Fushun and Ms. Wang left the guesthouse on Jan. 29 and ended up at the local procurator’s office, according to a report from the activist group Human Rights in China. Hours later, Xue Fushun was reported as having died in a fall from the building.
The police in Qufu did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. Xue’s death.
Ms. Wang traveled to Beijing after her husband’s death in an effort to evade security officers, Mr. Tang said, but was detained again on Feb. 2. “To have someone detained like this after the death of a family member, this is a serious human rights incident,” Mr. Tang said. Her current situation is unknown.
The issue of suspicious deaths in custody has come under scrutiny in China after a series of cases in recent years. Most involve deaths that are often explained in unlikely ways, such as the 2009 case of a suspect in Yunnan Province who suffered a fatal blow supposedly incurred during a game of hide and seek.
In 2012, Li Wangyang, a longtime democracy advocate from Hunan Province, died in prison after the authorities said that he had hanged himself. That explanation was widely questioned by his supporters, who said Mr. Li was extremely frail after serving more than 20 years in prison following the 1989 Tiananmen protest, and would have had difficulty committing suicide in that manner.
Mr. Li’s death prompted large protests in Hong Kong. Many Chinese activists were also inspired by his case to declare that they had no intention of committing suicide, and to ask friends to investigate in the event that they died in detention.
Bree Feng contributed research.
A version of this article appears in print on 02/08/2014, on page A5 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Doubts on China’s Report of a Suicide.
