A retired police officer who approved the one-way permit for alleged smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing to migrate to Hong Kong from the mainland has been jailed for 15 years for corruption, the semi-official China News Service (CNS) reported yesterday. Zhang Yonghui, a former deputy director of Shaanxi Public Security Bureau, was sentenced by Xian Intermediate People's Court, CNS said. It quoted media reports in Xian as saying he was sentenced with Wang Wei, who was in charge of issuing one-way permits to Hong Kong. The report claimed that Wang issued 58 one-way permits in three years from December 1990, one of which was given to Lai. In return, a Hong Kong businessman paid Zhang a total of 818,000 yuan. Lai, who is accused of being the mastermind behind a huge smuggling racket in Fujian province, is fighting for political asylum in Canada. He fled Hong Kong in 1999.
