(Minghui.org) I was shocked when I read an article that was recently published on Minghui.org: “63-Year-Old Woman Dies Less Than 24 Hours After Arrest for Her Faith.”

It’s hard to imagine that an ordinary person could be mistreated like this in modern society: wanton home ransacking, taken away by force, illegal interrogation, tortured, threatened, and killed. Ms. Hu Shangxiu’s death was not accidental. It was a crime committed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. How could they so callously end a life like this?

The people involved must be held accountable because this tragedy not only affects Ms. Hu’s family, but is a threat to society. The police administration in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, should make public the legal documents, law enforcement procedures, and video footage. It will help identify those who are responsible, as well as offer an explanation to her family and society of what happened.

According to the Minghui report, several police officers participated in the arrest of Ms. Hu, an innocent citizen and an employee at the Sandian Subdistrict Office in the Xinzhou District. This is an indication of abuse of power by the police. The personnel who carried this out should be fired, and the agency that ordered it should be investigated.

Article 22 of the People’s Police Law of the People’s Republic of China states, “The people’s police may not commit any of the following acts: ... extort confession by torture or subject criminals to corporal punishment or maltreat them.”

But in this case, the mistreatment that Ms. Hu was subjected to caused her death less than 24 hours after she was arrested. According to the Minghui article: “Ms. Hu had been very healthy with no pre-existing conditions before her arrest.”

The officials who ordered her arrest violated China’s Constitution, Criminal Law, and Police Law. All the individuals involved should be held criminally liable.

Article 19 of the Criminal Procedure Law states, “People’s procuratorates may file cases for investigation when they find in exercising legal supervision over litigation activities that there are judicial officers taking advantage of their functions and powers and committing crimes such as illegally detaining others, extorting confessions by torture or engaging in illegal search, which infringe upon the rights of citizens and undermine justice.”

The Criminal Law also specifies the legal consequences of illegal imprisonment, use of torture to extract confessions, and use of violence to collect evidence. It states that, if the offenders who committed such crimes are government officials, they should be punished more severely.

Local authorities and the police sometimes employ a mix of hard and soft tactics—evading responsibility, stalling, intimidating whistle blowers, and placating the family with compensation—in an attempt to cover up the truth. However, according to Police Law and the State Compensation Law, government and police officers are legally liable for damages when they abuse their authority to infringe upon citizens’ rights.

The police officers in the article claimed that they arrested six other practitioners for “promoting” Falun Gong at the Zhanglin Wet Market, and one of them allegedly “identified” Ms. Hu as the organizer.

These are groundless accusations, and they cannot justify what was done to Ms. Hu.

Article 1 of the Police Law states the law was enacted for the purpose of “protecting the lawful rights and interests of citizens.” Article 2 of the Police Law states, “Tasks of the people's police are to … protect citizens’ personal safety and freedom and their legal property…” But officials involved in Ms. Hu’s death did the opposite.

No law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, so even if Ms. Hu organized others to promote Falun Gong, she should not have been arrested.

This brutal persecution is unacceptable. These incidents should be exposed on Minghui and other websites and ultimately be investigated.