Torture and Truth

Zhou Yuan sat on the couch slumped, and leaned forward, gripping his arms. Stiff, reticent, he spoke with a stammer and avoided eye contact. He had a distinctively raspy voice like a longtime smoker. He had been out of prison for 580 days and counted each one as it went by. He was there to tell me his story.
 
Sixteen years ago, Zhou was arrested in Xinjiang when he was 27-years-old. Since 1991, the town of Yining in Xinjiang was gripped in a state of panic over a series of vicious sexual assaults against women. Local authorities had been on a manhunt for years and Zhou was detained as a suspect in 1997. However, Zhou maintains to this day that he is innocent.