Prison staff punished for letting inmate tunnel out

Sixteen people, including a warden and police guards from Xiliinhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, were punished for offering protection to a prisoner, the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervisory Commission of the autonomous region said in a statement on Sunday.

The inmate, Xi Guijun, was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment for robbery in January 2002.

He was transferred to Xiliinhot Prison in September 2003.

During his stay at the prison, he was given special treatment by Zhao Qinglin, who was the prison warden at that time.

Xi even instructed other inmates to dig a tunnel to the outside. Zhao and police guards turned a blind eye to the digging.

In July 2005, Xi left the prison through the tunnel and caused a traffic accident in which one person was killed.

Fifty-two days after the accident, he and others in Xiliinhot committed a criminal act that led to one person being seriously injured.

Despite Xi's crimes, the prison fabricated meritorious service assessments to allow Xi to get his jail time reduced. While incarcerated, Xi was granted three commutations, shaving four years and six months off his sentence. He was released on November 2007.

In December 2018, the 16 people, including Zhao, were expelled from the Communist Party of China, removed from public office, demoted or dismissed. They were exempted from criminal liability because the statute of limitations had passed, the statement said.

In February this year, a court in Inner Mongolia sentenced Xi to 14 years behind bars for extortion of a coal mine.