China jails ex-police chief in aftermath of vicious Tangshan barbecue restaurant attack on women

Name: Chinese women turn to self-defence classes after brutal attack on female diners in Tangshan
Uploaded: 2024-01-23T06:40:25.000Z
Duration: 3 min 50 s
Description: Chinese women turn to self-defence classes after brutal attack on female diners in Tangshan

Ma Aijun sentenced to 12 years in prison for abuse of power, taking bribes in case related to assault that shocked the nation

Ma is the first official publicly known to have been jailed over the case

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A former police chief sent to prison for 12 years is first official to be sentenced following a brutal attack in Tangshan, Hebei province in 2022 that left four women injured. Photo: Weibo

Phoebe Zhang

Published: 2:40pm, 23 Jan 2024Updated: 3:56pm, 23 Jan 2024

A former police chief in northern China has been jailed for sheltering gang members in a case linked to a brutal attack on a group of women at a late-night barbecue restaurant in Tangshan two years ago.

Ma Aijun, former head of the Lubei district branch of the Tangshan Public Security Bureau in Hebei province, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 700,000 yuan (US$97,300), a district court in the neighbouring city of Langfang said in its annual report on Sunday.

Ma was convicted and sentenced for breaching the law for personal gain and bribery, with the court referring to him as “Ma from the Tangshan barbecue beating case”.

It was the first publicly known sentencing of an official connected to a case that outraged the nation after a video of the attack went viral in June 2022.

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Chinese women turn to self-defence classes after brutal attack on female diners in Tangshan

The footage showed a local thug, later identified as Chen Jizhi, harassing a woman and beating her after she rejected his advances.