Our newspaper reports (by reporter Qiushi Wang): Ms. Yuan, 26 years old, was ordered by the security captain, Mr. Zhou, to pay a fine for drinking a beverage in the supermarket without paying for it. When she refused, she was forcibly stripped and searched and also beaten. Yesterday morning, Mr. Zhou was tried at Haidian Court on charges of illegal search. This is the first case of illegal search in the city.
At the time of the incident, Mr. Zhou was the security captain of the Beijing Haidian Northwa Road Carrefour Supermarket. In October last year, Ms. Yuan, 26 years old, came to the supermarket to shop and drank a bottle of juice without paying for it. She was then taken to the supermarket security department office to be dealt with by Mr. Zhou.
Mr. Zhou asked Ms. Yuan to pay a 300 yuan fine. Upon discovering that she didn't have enough cash, he instructed her to withdraw money from the bank. Because Ms. Yuan entered the wrong bank card password twice, Mr. Zhou became very angry and began to forcibly search her, making her lift up her top and pull down her pants. During the inspection, he struck her chest, legs, and other parts of her body with a rubber stick and made some insulting and threatening remarks. After all this, Mr. Zhou let her go, and Ms. Yuan immediately reported the incident to the police.
In his confession, Mr. Zhou said that often thieves would hide items in their underwear and take them away. If the security guards caught the thief and forced them to pay fines, it counted as their "performance," and according to the supermarket rules, they could receive a certain percentage of the fine as a bonus. At the time of the incident, he felt that Ms. Yuan was opposing him, so he conducted the forced search as an act of retaliation. Regarding this statement, the supermarket indicated that this was Mr. Zhou's personal behavior, and the supermarket does not have the authority to search customers.
When the police transferred the case to the prosecution for review and indictment, the charge was initially set as the crime of forcible indecent assault and insult to women. However, after reviewing, the prosecution believed that in the crime of forcible indecent assault and insult to women, the suspect usually has some improper sexual psychology. In this case, Mr. Zhou forced Ms. Yuan to undress mainly for the purpose of conducting a search. Therefore, the public prosecution charge was changed to illegal search.
The verdict for this case was not announced in court.
(Editor: SN021)