Beijing’s top court releases figures on organized crime cases

Beijing courts convicted 803 people for involvement in 162 cases of organized crime from the beginning of 2018 to the end of last year, seizing more than 600 million yuan ($87.8 million) in the process, the Beijing High People's Court said on Thursday.

Of those convicted, 272 were given prison sentences of five years or more for felonies under China's Criminal Law, Lan Xiangdong, a vice-president of the court, said.

He released the figures at a news conference on fighting organized crime at which he said all the city's courts had strengthened efforts to hear gang-related cases since the Communist Party of China Central Committee, in conjunction with the State Council, launched a three-year campaign against organized offenses nationwide in January 2018.

"We've heard 25 cases in which defendants disturbed financial order through illegal loans as well as 19 cases involving people working as agents who failed to offer jobs after cheating people out of money or who cut the supply of electricity and water to apartments after renters paid deposits," Lan said.

Meanwhile, courts across the city also handled cases in which offenders forced people to pay large amounts of money for roadside assistance, he added.

For example, from August 2016 to June 2018, Wang Haimin robbed 86 drivers after forcibly towing away vehicles involved in accidents and demanding money for their return, seriously harming road security and disturbing the order of freight services, Lan said.

He said Yanqing District People's Court had sentenced Wang to 15 years in prison for robbery and confiscated all of Wang's personal property.

The national office against organized crime, part of the CPC Central Committee's Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, said previously that the nationwide campaign had busted 3,291 mafia-style organizations and 10,418 other gangs by the end of July this year.