Former Chongqing justice chief Wen Qiang, the highest-ranking official snared in a crackdown on crime syndicates and their police protectors in the southwestern municipality, was sentenced to death by the city's No 5 Intermediate People's Court yesterday.
An online portal owned by the Chongqing Daily News group, cqnews.net, said Wen was found guilty of taking bribes, sheltering organised crime syndicates, possessing assets he could not account for and rape. All of his personal assets were confiscated. Wen, 54, was the head of the municipality's judicial administrative bureau before his arrest in August. He had earlier been its deputy police chief for 16 years.
In the high-profile crackdown launched by city party chief Bo Xilai in June last year, more than 3,300 people have been detained, including three billionaires, nearly 100 officials and more than 60 gang bosses. Hundreds have faced trial.
Wen's wife, Zhou Xiaoya, burst into tears yesterday after being sentenced to eight years in jail for accepting bribes worth 4.49 million yuan (HK$5 million), together with Wen. The court ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan of her assets.
Three other former senior officials in Chongqing's Public Security Bureau, Huang Daiqiang , Zhao Liming and Chen Tao , were jailed for between 171/2 years and 20 years for corruption and offering protection to organised crime syndicates. The court found that Wen had taken profits of 12.11 million yuan from development projects and had abused his power to promote and transfer officials. The court also found Wen guilty of raping a woman in August 2007 and being unable to account for the source of assets worth 10.44 million yuan.
The court found that Wen had shielded triad bosses, including his sister in-law Xie Caiping , from justice from 2003 to 2008. Xie was sentenced to 18 years in prison in November on charges of running illegal gambling dens and drug dealing. The China Youth Daily reported that 640,000 criminal cases remained unsolved and 1,447 murders were not investigated during Wen's time in the Public Security Bureau.
The newspaper interviewed the team investigating Wen's case and said his home was described as 'palace-like', with a two-metre-tall ivory screen at its entrance.