A former judge will observe the upcoming Spring Festival in a holding cell for alleged bribery amounting to 2.54 million yuan (US$327,400), reported the China Youth Daily Tuesday. 

Meng Laigui, a former presiding judge in charge of adjudication supervision in the Shanxi High People's Court was caught in a raid by the provincial procuratorate earlier last year. Meng's arrest has caused public unrest, as he used to have the final say in judicial matters.

Meng Laigui, under police escort, was in the Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court on February 12, 2007. [Shanxi Youth Daily]

Meng went on trial at the Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court on Monday.

Being with the court system for 30 years, Meng is not foreign to the legal procedure. The record of the raid shows that Meng remained in calm until piles of folded money were found under Meng's bed.

According to a courtroom investigation, Meng often promised those who bribed him an intense scrutiny of their lawsuits. In 2005, Meng commuted a sentence from 20 years to three years imprisonment and released the convict in court.

Within a couple of years after 2003, Meng amassed a fortune from the alleged bribes.

In China, a second instance is the final instance, which means appeals will not be accepted after the second verdict, and only a trial supervision system could shed a new light on the case to initiate a retrial. Meng's position in the judicial system was essentially the last chance for the convicts.

The system is designed to allow a close look at all the facts, evidence, convictions, sentences and trial procedures to better protect the rights of convicts.