Fallen trio under spell of 'Cleopatra'

ZHAO LIJUAN slept with three top law enforcement officials in the booming eastern province of Zhejiang and became the conduit for bribes of hundreds of thousands of yuan to avoid death sentences and to buy promotions in the police force.

In March, the three officials were sentenced to long prison terms, while Zhao, 39, the wife of a rich businessman with a teenage son, was sentenced to 18 months' jail on April 17 for abetting corruption.

The story of Zhao has riveted the public with its mixture of sex, crime and police corruption. But it makes sombre reading for those at the top of the Government to see how members of its elite, educated since childhood at the Communist Party's best universities and training classes, were found guilty of the very crimes they were appointed to prevent.

In their defence, the three men depicted Zhao as a seductive Cleopatra who pursued them and put them under her spell, forcing them to do things they did not want to do.

That was the story most people accepted until last weekend, when Xinwen Zhoukan magazine published Zhao's own account, in her first interview at a police detention centre in the city of Lanxi, where she has been held since May 17 last year.

'Friends wanted to arrange something and it could take three, four days or even longer,' she said. 'But, with a word from a high official, the matter could be fixed quickly. I made opportunities for them and asked them [the three] to help. To express thanks, the friends would invite them for a drink or give them some money. That is a very normal thing.