Chinese prisoner got other inmates to dig a tunnel so he could come and go from jail
- And he got away with it – and more – because former warden and 15 other officials turned a blind eye to his activities, corruption watchdog says
- They have been expelled from the party, sacked or demoted, while Xi Guijun, freed in 2007, is back behind bars for blackmailing a coal mine operator
A former prison warden and 15 other officials allowed inmates to dig an escape tunnel, which one used to freely come and go from the jail, a corruption watchdog in northern China has revealed.
They were in charge of the Xilinhot Prison, in Inner Mongolia, when a team of inmates began tunnelling under the direction of Xi Guijun, who was serving an 11-year term for robbery.
Xi had been transferred to the jail in 2003, a year into his sentence, where he received favourable treatment from the warden, Zhao Qinglin, and other officials, the Inner Mongolia Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement on Sunday.
Two years later, Xi was involved in a fatal car accident during one of his escapes, and less than two months later an assault in which a man was seriously injured at an entertainment venue, the watchdog said, without elaborating.
But his jail term was reduced soon after, and he was released from prison in 2007.
The graft-buster said Zhao was expelled from the Communist Party for his part in the scandal, while the others – including his deputy Li Luhan and Wang Fengzhou, who was the jail’s party secretary – had been demoted or removed from their posts.
They were exempted from criminal liability because the statute of limitations had passed, the statement said.