Shandong police probe malpractice claims in debt conflict

An investigation was opened on Sunday on several police officers over allegations of negligence following public outcry from a debt conflict in the city of Liaocheng in east China’s Shandong Province.

Yu Huan was given life sentence for killing a man who sexually assaulted Yu’s mother in the debt conflict last year.

On April 14, 2016, in a bid to have Yu’s mother pay a debt, one of the debt collectors started sexually assaulting Yu’s mother. Yu then called the police over the incident, but they left without resolving the issue. Yu then stabbed the debt collector and was later charged with murder.

However, local news reports revealed last month that the police had been very lax and careless when they arrived at the scene. It sparked a huge controversy over the perception of police negligence and whether Yu’s act should be justified as “self-defense.”

China’s top prosecutor dispatched a task force to review all the evidence, and a separate probe into how the police handled the case showed malpractice, revealing a serious dereliction of duty since they didn’t take effective measures to protect the mother.