Newsmaker

Pop star Zang Tianshuo sentenced to six years in jail

By Hu Yongqi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-27 13:47
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Famous Chinese singer Zang Tianshuo has been given a six-year sentence after a second hearing in Beijing for organizing a gang fight last September that killed one person and injured several others, the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court said Friday.

Pop star Zang Tianshuo sentenced to six years in jail
Zang Tianshuo, who is charged with gathering people to engage in affrays, is taken out of a police car to go on trial in Beijing Oct 14, 2009. [bjd.com.cn]

His sentence will last until 2014 as he has already been detained for one year.

The victims' families will be compensated with a combined sum of 290,000 yuan ($42,000).

Zang was allegedly the head of a gang whose members worked in his bar in Beijing. He has been accused of organizing hundreds of fights. He was detained last September for his alleged involvement in gang fights, and stood trial at the Beijing second intermediate people's court last month. He had previously confessed to criminal acts in court, but retracted the confessions later.

In one case, in 2003, a bar owner in Langfang, Hebei province, had a dispute with his partner and hired members of Zang's bar to settle the dispute. A man named Meng Long was killed in the ensuing fight.

But Tang Zhibin, the attorney representing Meng's family, told China Daily Friday that he was not informed of the hearing today. Meng's family had been wanting a compensation of 700,000 yuan from Zang.