Trial begins for former police chief accused of gang connections in southwestern China

Former China police chief on trial for gang links

BEIJING — A former police chief went on trial Tuesday on charges that he accepted bribes from gangs he protected for years in a southwestern China megacity with a long corruption history, state media reported.

Prosecutors at the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People’s Court said Wen Qiang took bribes worth more than 16 million yuan ($2.4 million) from gang members he gave legal protection while he was director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Wen, 55, is charged with bribery, rape and gang affiliations. Xinhua reported that he is accused of raping a university student in 2007 and 2008.

Wen’s trial is the latest in a series of gang prosecutions in Chongqing that have featured lurid testimony about sex, corruption and the violent underworld. Chongqing, an industrial metropolis in the southwest, has a long history of underworld activities and was the target of a government crackdown last year.

Wen was detained in August and accused of protecting the gang operations masterminded by his sister-in-law, Xie Caiping, 46, known as the “godmother” of the Chinese underworld. Xie was sentenced to 18 years in prison in November for running illegal casinos and bribing government officials.

Calls to the local court rang unanswered Tuesday.

Wen’s wife and three senior former Chongqing policemen also were brought to trial Tuesday on charges of taking bribes in exchange for protecting gang members, Xinhua reported.