An anti-triad police chief in Shenyang , Liaoning province , continued to wait yesterday for a verdict to be handed down in his trial on charges of colluding with local gangsters.
The former deputy chief of Shenyang Public Security Bureau, Zhang Jianming , has been on trial since last month with 23 others, accused of gang-related and other crimes.
One of the other defendants is Zhang's close friend Hao Wanchun , the owner of a string of nightclubs, hotels and property development companies in Shenyang, The Beijing News reported yesterday.
The report said Zhang, 45, who was the youngest deputy director of the bureau, had collected bribes, tipped off triads about police campaigns, given shelter to Hao and his gangsters, and fabricated charges against innocent people.
'Hao is my friend. I didn't want him to be targeted ... that would drag me in,' Zhang was quoted saying.
Zhang joined the police in 1983 when he was 20, and was promoted to deputy director of Shenyang's Huanggu district police station 12 years later due to his efforts against organised crime. But his life changed when he met Hao in 1994.