Two police officers walked free and two others were jailed for torturing a man over a 17-hour period before his death in a detention house in Nanchang.

Wan Jianguo, a 43-year-old medical company salesman, died on Aug 8 last year after investigators from the Nanchang police bureau of Jiangxi province interrogated him about the deaths of six patients at a city hospital.

The Nanchang Intermediate People's Court of Jiangxi province on Wednesday sentenced the four officers, after Wan's wife Wu Peifen refused a 3-million yuan (US$440,000) compensation offer because she wanted the men to be brought to justice.

However, Wu was distraught after two of the men, Guo Songlin and Xiong Yu'er, convicted of inquisition by torture, were allowed to walk free from the court.

Of the other men, Deng Hongfei was sentenced to 12 years in prison for committing a crime with the intent to injure and the fourth man, Xia Xiangdong, will spend one year behind bars for inquisition by torture.

Wu has already indicated that she will protest the sentences, which she said were too light.

Zhang Kai, her lawyer, told China Daily they would apply to the procuratorate to launch an appeal. The four officers should have been charged with intentional killing, instead of inquisition by torture, Zhang said.

"She (Wu) is very sad now. Think about how brutally her husband was treated and died. We have talked and decided to apply for counter-appeal. It seems very clear from the law that if the police cause injury or death, they should be convicted of intentional injuring or killing," Zhang said.

"However, the procuratorate only charged them with inquisition by torture", Zhang told China Daily.

Wan was being interrogated because authorities believed the company he worked for supplied the immunoglobulin that was believed to have killed hospital patients.

In the hours leading up to his death, Wan was tortured in two shifts: The first started at 6 pm on Aug 7 and lasted until 6 am the following day. The second shift ended at 6 pm.

During the first shift, three policemen strung Wan up by a rope tied to his hands behind him. They then electrically shocked him, prosecutors alleged.

In the second shift, four more policemen continued with the torture but also beat him with a long wooden stick.

Wan ceased breathing at 11:30 am.

Zhang is among a group of 11 lawyers and legal scholars who submitted a letter to the Supreme People's Court on Monday asking for an explanation why the officers had not been charged with intentional killing.

"I think our law is very unfavorable to victims as they don't have a right to appeal. If the procuratorate refuses to protest for us, we can do nothing," Zhang said.

The investigation into the deaths of the six patients at the hospital at Nanchang University has never been resolved. The hospital paid 200,000 yuan to each of the victims' families last December.

Wu told China Daily last month that there was no evidence her husband was responsible for the patients' deaths.

"I want my husband's innocence," Wu said. "And to uncover how the 'people's police' can beat an innocent person to death."

(China Daily August 14, 2009)