China state media say police officers, others guilty of torturing suspects to give confessions

FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2012 file photo, a Chinese paramilitary policeman stands guard underneath a surveillance camera at an entrance to the Number Two Detention Center in Beijing, China. Three police officers and four other people helping them have been convicted of torturing suspects to obtain confessions, China's official state news agency reported, in a rare example of a prosecution of the practice. The slogan on the wall reads "No small matter in detention center, everything concerns safety." (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File) (The Associated Press)

BEIJING – China's official news agency says three police officers and four other people helping them have been convicted of torturing suspects to obtain confessions.

Xinhua News Agency said one of the cases ended in the death of a man after he had been tortured with electric shocks and hit on the head and face with a shoe.

The seven cases all happened in March 2013 at a police station in Harbin city in China's northeast. The seven defendants were given prison sentences of up to 2 1/2 years.

Chinese authorities have said that the problem of coerced confessions has been effectively addressed by new measures in the last five years, including video recording police interrogations and calling on judges to reject evidence obtained through torture.