Jiao Hua, a teenager from the eastern province of Anhui was upbeat and full of confidence and curiosity. He was a talented athlete and planned to take the college entrance examination, hoping to be accepted into the Shanghai University of Sport.

But now, he sees himself as a failure with nothing within which to discover the pride that has deserted him. "I've lost confidence in being able to compete."

Jia was one of four teenage students from Anhui who were illegally tortured while being mistakenly detained for almost 100 days on murder charges, the China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

It is the first time that four innocent victims were illegally detained at the same time, the paper added.

The Juchao subbranch of the Chaohu police station mistakenly identified Jiao Hua, Wang Hao, Zhang Hu and Zhang Feng as murder suspects. Far from realizing their error, the police only released the four stricken young men upon the arrest of four other suspects.

In the latest development, the police have sealed a contract with the four's parents, promising to pay each 60,000 yuan (US$7,500) in compensation for their mistake. Three police officers who were allegedly torturing them are being investigated.

"The pursuit of efficiency in closing a case contributes to mistakes in legal procedures," an expert told the paper on condition of anonymity.

The police carried out all-day interrogations on the four forbidding them from even closing their eyes. Some were forced to kneel on the ground or to stand for dozens of hours at a time with others being bodily thrown against the wall, stated the paper.

After returning to their cells, they suffered from starvation and cold temperatures, being denied access to the clothes their parents sent them.

The paper said that the four were detained with adult criminals in a cell, another breach of Chinese law. The hardened cell-mates regularly beat the teenagers and, in a separate report, the four said they were denied sleep for up to four consecutive days.

During their illegal detention, Wang was interrogated 14 times resulting in 10 false confessions. Jiao was interrogated eight times, and falsely confessed twice. Zhang Feng was interrogated 14 times, forced to confess three times while his brother Zhang Hu was subjected nine times to brutal interrogations, falsely confessing six times.

The four were charged with murder after 57-year-old farmer Liu Zhihua was found in a coma and having seizures at about 5 AM on September 2 last year. He died five days later in hospital.

An unidentified witness said she saw Liu being beaten by four teenagers and then informed his family of the incident.

A local farmer surnamed Li reported to the relevant officials that Zhang Hu and Zhang Feng, sons of his neighbor Zhang Youlong, may have been guilty since his mother secretly told him that the Zhang family men were bad, and this quality was passed down from generation to generation. Preposterously, police accepted Li's words as evidence.

Li also told the police that Zhang Youlong's mother went back to her son's home, searching for Jiao Yu, Jiao Hua and Wang Dongfeng as well as his classmate. The coincidence made the police suspicious, according to the paper.

Police officers called on Jiao Yu to interrogate him in the evening on September 9. He told the police that his parents suspected Wang Hao, Zhang Hu and Zhang Feng as well as his brother Jiao Hua of committing the crime after five hours of "mental warfare." The four were finally detained on September 10.

Police misconduct has come under massive scrutiny after high-profile cases were exposed amid the government's resolution to build China into a harmonious society.

A man named She Xianglin, 39, from Shayang County in Hubei Province, was proven innocent after spending 11 years in jail for "murdering" his wife following her unexpected reappearance. Nie Shubin, sentenced to death in 1994 for rape and homicide, was tragically executed. The real rapist and killer was identified and arrested in 2005.

China's top legislature is considering revising the country's Criminal Procedure Law, highlighting the prevention of torture for extortion of confessions, previous reports said.

While the current Criminal Procedure Law strictly prohibits the use of any forms of torture for suspects in police custody, a lack of relevant concrete provisions has actually led to the "biggest mistake," Professor Chen Weidong of the Renmin University of China commented on the Anhui case.

(China Daily September 12, 2006)