Society

Chongqing police chief jailed for life

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-25 07:14

Sentence serves as a precedent for five other accused officers

The former deputy police chief of Chongqing municipality was jailed for life yesterday for protecting gangs, amid an ongoing crime sweep in the city.

Peng Changjian, fomer deputy director of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, listens during sentencing on Feb. 24, 2010. [Wei Wenjie]

The sentence also reflects 47-year-old Peng Changjian receiving 4.71 million yuan ($689,000) in bribes from 1998 to 2009, as well as possessing 4.6 million yuan in unexplained assets.

Peng is the first senior officer to be convicted for protecting gangs. Another five top policemen face similar charges, including his boss, Wen Qiang.

Peng Changjian is pictured before his arrect.[China Daily]

Peng's sentence is intended to serve as a precedent and test case for Wen and the remaining four officers.

Wen, 55, the former deputy director of Chongqing municipal public security bureau for 11 years and short-lived former director of Chongqing justice bureau, is accused of accepting 15.46 million yuan in bribes, rape, protecting six gangs and possessing 10.62 million yuan in unexplained assets.

The court hearing the allegation of rape against Wen is closed to the public "over concerns for the victim's privacy". The case is believed to hold the potential for a plea bargain between the local authority and the former director, according to a local lawyer who wished to remain anonymous.

Wen was sent to trial almost six month after he was detained in Beijing last August.

The remaining four senior officers face the same accusations of accepting bribes, partially from gangs, as well as offering protection to them. The outcome of their trials was due to be resolved shortly after the Chinese Spring Festival.

The four are: Huang Daiqiang, 48, former deputy head of the criminal police division under the municipal police bureau; Chen Tao, 48, deputy head of the city's public security police division; Zhao Liming, 50, deputy head of the city's public transportation security police division; and Chen Honggang, 55, former head of the municipal traffic police division.

The Chongqing No 1 intermediate people's court said yesterday that from 1998 to 2009 Peng had accepted bribes to protect three mafia-style gangs involved in organized crime, including prostitution.

During his trial, Peng acknowledged he never led a police investigation of three clubs owned by the three gang bosses, which he had been to on several occasions, an omission he justified on the grounds of wishing to avoid abuse of power by the police.

Explaining his inaction, Peng said that since some of his peers had previously abused their power while investigating entertainment venues, an investigation should not take place unless a member of the public had first raised an alarm to police.

Wen used a similar excuse in court to defend his inaction over the three clubs. He was also accused of protecting the three gang bosses, named as Wang Xiaojun, Ma Dang and Yue Ning.

With his conviction and life sentence, the logic behind Peng's excuse apparently fell short and locals welcomed the heavy punishment dished out to the former police chief.

"Why didn't he receive the death penalty?" asked Zhang Jinghui, a student from the local Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.

"As a police chief, he knew the law and violated it, so he should face a harsher penalty," she added.

Following his sentence, the court ordered seizure of Peng's personal assets worth 500,000 yuan, bribery money and unexplained assets to top up the state treasury.

When asked if he accepted his sentence, Pent disagreed, though he did not immediately launch an appeal.

After Wen was detained, he allegedly told an investigating officer: "If you sentence me to death, I will tell everything, so let's wait for death together," the Guangzhou Daily reported.

By the end of 2009, the Chongqing operation to crack down on gangs had detained nearly 3,000 people and implicated 200 officials for their alleged connections with organized crime.