Zhang Liumao was taken into custody on 15 August for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble”. The police refused to give the family the cause of death and turned down their request to see the body. The activist had written in a magazine critical of the government.

Guangzhou (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A Chinese rights activist from the southern province of Guangdong has died in a police-run detention centre.

Zhang Liumao was reported dead by authorities in the Guangzhou No. 3 Detention Centre in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but his family has been prevented from viewing his body.

Zhang had been charged with "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a public order charge often used to target critics of the government. However, prison staff gave no explanation to his family regarding the circumstances of his death.

"The police were unwilling to give us any information about the circumstances, or about how or where he died," Liumao’s sister Zhang Weichu said. "All they said was that he is dead."

"They told us to go there and go through the paperwork and discuss it with them."

She said Zhang Liumao's body is still at the crematorium, and the family has refused to give permission for his cremation until they have more information.

Zhang Liumao was detained in a sudden police raid on his home on 15 August, but his case had not yet gone to trial.

His sister said his detention was likely linked to an unofficial literary magazine that had been circulating in Guangzhou.

For rights activist Qu Bo, "The law is vague on the matter of whether just speaking can constitute 'picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,' and as such I think that this favours the abuse of power”.

Freedom of speech activist Wu Bin, who accompanied Zhang Wuzhou to the detention centre, said they were refused entry.

"[The family] asked for his personal belongings back, and they were told it was against the rules, and that they would be held in storage," he said.

Wu said that he and Zhang Wuzhou had visited the detention centre a few weeks earlier and had been refused permission to see Zhang Liumao.

"The police officer swore to us that there was no beating or mistreatment of prisoners in that detention centre, that all was well inside," Wu said. 

• china
• guangdong
• zhang
• liumao
• arrest
• death