Ex-Chongqing police official gets life in jail for years of corruption

Chongqing's former deputy police chief has been jailed for life for corruption and harbouring criminal gangs, state media reported yesterday.

The municipality's No 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Peng Changjian, former deputy chief of its Public Security Bureau, after finding him guilty of corruption, possessing assets that could not be accounted for and conniving with organised crime syndicates.

The court confiscated 500,000 yuan (HK$567,000) of his personal assets and will seek to retrieve more than 4.71 million yuan from bribes. It also demanded that Peng turn in 4.6 million yuan worth of assets that he could not account for, Xinhua said.

Peng, 47, is the second-highest-ranking police officer brought down by the crackdown on gang-related crime in Chongqing, launched last June, after former police and justice chief Wen Qiang. Wen's trial on charges of co-operating with gangsters, rape and taking bribes ended early this month, but no verdict has been announced.

Peng was Wen's right-hand man and dubbed one of the three major protectors of criminal gangs in Chongqing. He received bribes between 1998 and last year while in various positions in the bureau.

The court found that when he was in charge of police in Yuzhong district in February 2002 he had obstructed criminal investigations, prohibiting subordinates from following up crime leads on luxury entertainment venues without prior approval, Xinhua said.