Justice sought for those prosecuted during Bo Xilai's organised crime campaign

As disgraced Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai appeals his lifelong jail sentence, the city he ruled for five years is still struggling with the dubious legacy of his anti-crime campaigns.

Xu Mingxuan, a legal practitioner who has long criticised Bo’s legacy, called on Chongqing’s municipal government to bring justice for those prosecuted during Bo’s publicised “dahei”, or “fight organised crime”, campaign in a commentary for the Beijing News on Sunday.

More than 3,300 people have been detained in the campaign which lasted from 2007 until Bo’s downfall early last year, according to municipal statistics. Many were tortured. The city’s longtime police chief Wen Qiang became the campaign’s highest-profile target in 2009. He, along with 12 other purported triad leaders, was executed.

After the man who spearheaded the campaign, police chief Wang Lijun, attempted to defect to the US consulate in Chengdu in January last year, many of those prosecuted spoke out demanding compensation and an apology for the often extrajudicial punishments.

For Xu, the case of real estate developer Chongqing Junfeng Industrial Development Group was a litmus test for Chongqing’s new administrators and their willingness to make amends for the witch-hunt conducted by their predecessors.

“The problems left over from the dahei campaign will not naturally disappear,” wrote Xu in the article. “Don’t let the people lose faith in the law over some anxieties.”