The management of a Hebei detention center is being investigated after two prisoners died and another was severely injured by a jailhouse bully.

The provincial-level investigation was launched after the family of the bullied man went to authorities to complain about the way he had been treated at the Zanhuang detention center.

Su Zhengjun, of Hebei Province public security bureau, said two mysterious deaths happened at the center in 2007.

Previous to that, Qin Yingwei, from Dongjie, Hebei Province, suffered damage to his internal organs after being forced to drink 10 liters of water daily for two months in 2006.

Qin, 27, was arrested for attempted rape on Sept 11, 2006 and transferred to Zanhuang detention center a few days later. A court declared Qin innocent during a bedside hearing at a local hospital on April 7, 2008, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported.

While in prison on the charge, Qin was forced to play poker with Yu Zhenrong, self-appointed head of prisoners, who made Qin drink a bucket of cold water every time he lost.

Yu was jailed for life in 2005 for murder. He fatally stabbed his girlfriend's sister and injured the woman's husband before threatening to kill himself and his girlfriend in an explosion.

Yu is said to have used his life sentence to threaten other prisoners, saying he would kill again if anyone made him unhappy. In less than one hour, Qin would drink tens of buckets of water. If he refused, Yu would beat him. Qin began to fall ill. He developed a rash and his body began to swell. One day, he found he could not see out of one of his eyes.

A doctor said that Qin suffered from extremely high blood pressure, hemorrhaging and heart disease. During his one and half years in detention, Qin spent more than nine months in the hospital.

Zhao Yumin, deputy director of the detention center, said he heard that Qin had been ill before he was jailed, the paper reported. But so far, no documents on Qin's health have been shown to the public.

Doctors said that Qin's disease was caused by excessive water, which entered the veins and damaged internal organs.

To comfort Qin and his family, the public security branch in Zanhuang gave them 200 yuan (US$29). The families of the two prisoners who died received 90,000 and 15,000 yuan as "subsidies".

(China Daily July 3, 2009)