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Shi Jiangtao

Tycoon Yuan Baojing's wife denies that he was granted a stay of execution for handing over billions of yuan in oil assets

The central government has accepted death-row tycoon Yuan Baojing's  donation of his multibillion yuan in oil assets to the state and  has started verifying the details of the offer, according to Yuan's wife and lawyer.

Yuan's wife, Zhuoma, said she had  offered the donation, at Yuan's request, straight after his last-minute reprieve on October 14. But the tycoon is still living on borrowed time because the death sentence has not been reversed.

'I provided all the necessary legal documents regarding my husband's donation to officials from relevant government departments two to three days after the suspension of the execution,' she  said.

'The authorities have accepted the offer and they are still verifying the donation. I can't tell you the name of the departments involved or the details of the donation as I have been  told not to.

'The officials were totally surprised at our donation of such a large amount of money. They were even more stunned after learning who made the offer.'

Zhuoma, a renowned Tibetan dancer who teaches at the Central University for Nationalities, said she did not make any requests when officials repeatedly asked what she and Yuan wanted in return.

'To their surprise, I said no. It is my husband's dying wish and I want nothing but to make the donation on his behalf,' she added.

She said widespread media speculation linking Yuan's  donation  to his stay of execution was irresponsible, but Liu Jiazhong , Yuan's lawyer, said  it could  be viewed as 'rendering significantly meritorious service to the state and the society',  which was one of the three conditions under which a death sentence could be halted.

'But if that happens, it will set a precedent in China that money can buy one's life,' he cautioned. 'The scenario definitely goes against Yuan's wishes.'

The lawyer insisted that the procurator's office in the city of Liaoyang  had stopped the execution because Yuan had submitted important evidence implicating a senior  Liaoning  legal cadre in a corruption scandal.

'But we cannot pin our hopes simply on Yuan's donation and his report about the corrupt official, as they may not be able to be verified in the end,' Mr Liu said. 'We must produce hard evidence to clear Yuan of these wrongful charges.'

Yuan was condemned to death by the Liaoyang Intermediate People's Court in January for hiring his brother and two cousins to murder a former policeman-turned-employee, who was blackmailing him, in October 2003.

The sentence was approved by the Liaoning Provincial High Court in early October, according to the Xinhua-owned Oriental Outlook magazine.

However,  it is believed that the execution was stayed after Yuan decided to give up his stake in an Indonesian oil field, worth an estimated 49.5 billion yuan.

Yuan's last-minute escape  sparked bitter criticism  of the mainland legal system in the media and on internet chat rooms, where some alleged that 'money speaks louder than the law'.

Zhuoma said she was angered by the overwhelmingly negative public response.

'My husband's reputation and his personality have been tainted by the allegation linking his temporary reprieve to his money,' she said. 'That hurt me and my husband the most.'

Zhuoma said Yuan first mentioned his plan to give up his oil assets as early as June, but only wrote the donation letter on October 12. The only information about Yuan's reported  wealth  is a photocopy of his donation letter  published by  Oriental Outlook  last week.

The copy, provided by Mr Liu, said Yuan owned a 40 per cent stake in a large oil field in Indonesia, which had yet to be exploited. The oil field, which reportedly has reserves of up to 2.7 billion tonnes of oil,  is  near Borneo and is jointly controlled by a Hong Kong-based company owned by Yuan and  American and Canadian interests.

Yuan said in the letter that the oil field was a significant strategic asset for China's energy-hungry economy.

Zhuoma said she believed her husband had been wronged from the start, citing a number of examples, including inconsistencies  his confessions  and the unexplained disappearance or damage to key evidence while it was in the hands of local authorities.

'Yuan Baofu  and Yuan Baosen  [Yuan Baojing's two cousins who were allegedly hired by the billionaire to carry out the assassination] had not had any kind of contact with my husband,' she said.

'Even if the two had come to Beijing, they would not have visited us as they had no idea whatsoever where my family lived. How could it be possible for them to implicate my husband in the case?

'I still trust the country, but not the local authorities any more. We have seen a great deal of injustice in Liaoyang in this case.'

Zhuoma complained that she had been allowed to meet her husband in private only once  in the past two years since his arrest -  on the day of the scheduled execution.

'I brought my three-year-old son with me on the morning of October 14 to the cell where my husband had been detained in Liaoyang. We had a 20-minute conversation,' she said.

'He was calm when I told him that the execution had been halted. He asked me to make the donation as soon as possible. He said I should trust the central government regardless of the result of his case.

'But he also urged me to clear him of the disgraceful criminal charges in case  he was executed.'

Mr Liu said he believed China's top court was likely to intervene in the case after investigating  the new evidence and allegations of a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Liu said Yuan's case had exposed serious flaws in China's legal system, such as poor law enforcement and a lack of protection of the lawful rights of the accused.

'It showed serious problems with local legislative organs and especially with some judicial staff who dealt with Yuan's case,' he said.

He noted that the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Beijing signed in 1998 but had not ratified, would provide more detailed protection for the rights of defendants in criminal cases than was available under current mainland law.



'I still trust the country, but not local authorities any more. We have seen a great deal of injustice'