Chinese lawyer Yi Shenghua issued a statement on the afternoon of August 8th, revealing that he was interfered by the Beijing Judicial Bureau after exposing a case of theft, insult, and intentional destruction of corpses on Weibo the previous day. The relevant post was deleted that evening.
On the morning of the 8th, Yi Shenghua stated in his post that he had chatted with a lawyer from another city the day before and learned about a case that horrified him. A pharmaceutical company in Shanxi collaborated with funeral homes in multiple places to acquire corpses aged 20-60 who did not die from illness, and these bodies were “crudely dissected” with some bones used to make biological tissue materials sold to hospitals.
Yi Shenghua expressed, “Having been a criminal lawyer for so many years, I have dealt with all kinds of cases, but this is the first time I have been so shocked and angry… What makes me most despair is that the current law can only impose a maximum punishment of less than three years on these people! And there’s no fine! With such huge profits and such lenient treatment, how many more people will dare to break the law?”
Later that afternoon, lawyer Yi Shenghua posted, “Received a call from the Beijing Judicial Bureau discussing whether it was appropriate to expose pending cases. Thank the staff of the Judicial Bureau for their concern. In order to change this enraging reality, I am willing to bear the corresponding cost.”
On the 9th, when reporters checked Yi Shenghua’s Weibo again, the relevant posts had been “deleted.” According to Yi Shenghua’s early morning post, he stated, “A higher level has taken action,” and netizens’ comments were also hidden on Weibo.
According to the materials disclosed online by the lawyer, Shanxi Ourei Biological Materials Co., Ltd. (“Shanxi Ourei Company”) is suspected of illegally purchasing corpses and body parts as raw materials, used to produce “allogeneic bone implant materials” products, with a total operating income from 2015 to 2023 reaching 380 million yuan. In the investigation of the case, the police seized more than 18 tons of human bone raw materials and semi-finished products, as well as 34,077 finished products from the company involved.
The case involves illegal theft and trafficking of over 4,000 corpses.
Additionally, there are a total of 75 criminal suspects involved in the case, including units such as Shanxi Ourei Company, Sichuan Hengpu Company, Shandong Qingdao University Affiliated Hospital Liver Disease Center, Guilin Medical College, Guilin Funeral Home, Pingle County Funeral Home, Yongfu County Funeral Home, as well as criminal suspect Su controlling Yunnan Shuifu City Crematorium, Chongqing Banan District Crematorium, Guizhou Shiqian County Crematorium, and Sichuan Daying County Crematorium.