Four policemen have been detained after they allegedly beat a 54-year-old man to death following the forced removal of part of his house in Hanoi.

The four officers are from Kim No Commune in Dong Anh District, Hanoi.

Huynh Ngoc Tuyen (32), deputy police chief of Kim No commune and three other policemen Nguyen Trong Kien (21), Doan Van Tuyen (29) and Hoang Ngoc Thuc (24) are being detained for causing the death of Nguyen Mau Thuan (54).

According to investigation, on the morning of August 30, the commune People’s Committee carried out the forced removal of a brick fence constructed by the victim’s father as the fence allegedly encroached upon a public street.

By 1:30pm the same day, Thuan was asked to report to the commune police station after Thuan was reported to use bricks to injure a woman.

At the station, Thuan was handcuffed. When he shouted, Kien, Tuyen and Thuc used chains to tie Thuan’s legs into a chair.

When Thuan struggled and shouted out loud, Tuyen and Kien used a bludgeon to beat his two thighs.

A photo provided by the victim’s family shows his two thighs being completely bruised (photo included above).

VnExpress reported that the commune deputy police chief Tuyen even ordered Kien to use two pens to crush Thuan’s fingers.

By 4pm, after two hours in detention, Thuan started to show symptoms of breathing difficulties.

Thuan was admitted to Dong Anh Hospital at 4:45pm. Upon arrival, his skin was cold, his whole body was bluish, blood pressure could not be measured, pupils dilated to the maximum, and he had no reflexes to light.

District police carried out an autopsy and concluded Thuan had three of his left ribs broken. He suffered from cirrhosis and was drunk when he died, the autopsy concluded.

On September 1, Thuan was buried.

Hoang Ngoc Vui, a commune deputy police chief, told Nguoi Lao Dong that handcuffs and bludgeons can only be used in emergency cases to subdue dangerous or potentially dangerous people.

Vui asserted that using them to extract confessions is illegal.