Shenzhen's biggest triad trial has opened in the city's Intermediate People's Court, with 41 people charged with links to Hong Kong's Sun Yee On gang and a string of organised crime offences.
Chen Yaodong, 41, the alleged head of the Shajing branch of Sun Yee On, and 40 alleged gang members faced 14 charges including organised crime, kidnapping, gambling, robbery, rape, bribery, extortion and drug trafficking, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday. The trial, which started on Wednesday, is expected to last about three weeks.
In an indictment running to more than 60 pages, prosecutors said the gang had built up its network in Shenzhen's Shajing sub-district for about two decades. They said the gang had been involved in numerous crimes in Shajing, including drug trafficking, forcing women into prostitution, blackmail, land grabs and extortion. Police said they had discovered more than 100 cases linked to the gang, including a number of murders.
Chen denied all the charges, saying he was just a local businessman and had never heard of Sun Yee On before.
Shajing's former Communist Party chief, Liu Shaoxiong , and several other officials were among the defendants. Liu is alleged to have accepted nearly 20 million yuan (HK$24.7 million) in bribes from the gang and to have acted as a "protective umbrella" for it since 2003.
Liu and Chen, along with more than 100 alleged gang members, were arrested in February in a province-wide anti-graft campaign that targeted officials involved in bribery.