ICC Note:
The reported suicide of a long-time Chinese dissident and Christian activist after more than two-decades of torture and imprisonment has many human rights attorney’s demanding an investigation. They say the circumstances surround his death are highly suspicious and the police rushed to cremate the body in an apparent attempt to hide evidence of foul play. 
06/30/2012 China (ChinaAid) – A group of some of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers and activists have set up a “Legal and Citizens Support Group” to push for an investigation into the “suicide” of long-time jailed dissident Christian Li Wangyang.
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“Li Wangyang was imprisoned for nearly 22 years, and suffered appalling torture and abuses which caused him to go blind and lose his hearing. But none of that caused him to change his mind about the need for a democratic future for China,” said ChinaAid founder and president Dr. Bob Fu.
“All of the available evidence surrounding around Christian democracy activist Li Wangyang’s sudden death in his hospital room indicate that the official Chinese claim that he committed suicide is suspicious and full of holes,” Fu said. “We applaud the Support Group’s courageous effort to urge the Chinese government to investigate the cause of Mr Li’s death, to seek justice for his illegally detained family members and to hold accountable whoever abused and tortured Mr Li and orchestrated his death.”
Statement of “Legal and Citizens Support Group”:
Ever since the news that Mr. Li Wangyang had “committed suicide” on the morning of June 6, our consciences has had no peace. This leader from the 1989 labor movement was imprisoned for 21 years and tortured on many occasions. Deaf, blind and almost paralyzed, he has suffered greatly for our nation. Now that he has died a mysterious death, we are very pained and angry!! 
The Shaoyang police’s pronouncement of “suicide” is riddled with questions: As a Christian, Li Wangyang would not be motivated to commit suicide. The body did not exhibit the usual physiological signs of suicide by hanging, such as “protruding tongue.” Besides, the bottoms of his feet were entirely in contact with the floor, and the white cloth with which he hanged himself was tied in an expert’s DuPont knot, which is not something that a deaf, blind and almost paralyzed patient could do. Furthermore, since the police have already ruled it a “suicide,” then logically speaking, this is not a criminal case, and there is all the more reason for the body to be released to his family so that they can mourn his death and make final arrangements. However, against the backdrop of objections from his family and doubt from all over the world, the Shaoyang police forcibly took control of the body and hurriedly cremated it. Legally speaking, there is great cause to suspect that they destroyed the body to cover up foul play.
 
In the face of strong and sustained protests from the mainland rights defenders, compatriots in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese, the Shaoyang police still have refused to disclose the truth. What makes one even more indignant is that the Shaoyang police illegally restrained Li Wangyang’s sister, Li Wangling, and other rights defenders by detaining them or by placing them under house arrest in an attempt to gag the voice of the world—Chinese who uphold humanitarianism and rule of law cannot tolerate such utter disregard for human life, such trampling on the rule of law and such actions that go against the law of heaven.
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