Netizens fume over arrest for online police 'insult'

Authorities in Yanzhou district, East China's Shandong province, have said they will explain themselves after coming under heavy criticism for detaining a man for an online complaint about police conduct.

The public outcry, which has prompted more than 169,000 online comments, began on Tuesday when police in Jining city posted a case on their official Sina Weibo account. The posting said they had given a 5-day detention order to a 21-year-old man on May 4 for "insulting" traffic police anonymously online.

By Wednesday morning, the number of comments on the case, according to news.163.com, was more than 169,000 and the latest post by the Yanzhou police had 12,500 comments. Most of those commenting online questioned whether the police had used their power to get even a civilian for a private grudge. Other participants in the online debate demanded the officials be held accountable.

The young man in question, identified only by his online alias Yanzhou Cunge, used swear words in an April 28 post on Baidu Post Bar, at tieba.baidu.com, complaining about transportation police after he received a fine for failing to pull over his car in a proper fashion.

In the police Weibo post about the case, Yanzhou police said the man "openly insulted the people's police, which caused adverse social impacts...... One should not take anonymous remarks online for granted, and those who broke the law will be punished."

The post didn't specify provisions or laws that the man offended. Yanzhou police later deleted this post. On Wednesday, a publicity officer of Yanzhou district said in interviews that the Weibo account did not cover all the details of the case, and that they will explain the case to the public at a later time, Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Wednesday.

The man known as Yanzhou Cunge said in interviews that he had burned the arrest notice, but remembered it said he was detained according to public security administration punishments. He added that "insulting" the police was one of the reasons listed on the notice, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

The Weibo post by the Yanzhou police continues to spark heated discussion online, with some web users and legal experts questioning whether the decision to detain the man was illegal under Chinese law.

Article 42 of China's Public Security Administration Punishments Law states that those who openly insult or distort facts to libel other people should face a detention under five days or a fine no higher then 500 yuan ($82). If the circumstances are relatively serious, a violator shall be detained for not less than five days but not more than 10 days and may be fined not more than 500 yuan.

Wang Wei, a lawyer in Shandong, said this law generally targets those who slander specific people and entities. Wei added that groups of people such as "Yanzhou transportation police" are not defined as a valid single entity under this article,according to a report by the Shandong-based Qilu Evening News on Wednesday.