Former Chinese police chief admits to defection
- 12 years ago
EDIT CONTAINS 4:3 MATERIAL
A former police chief who revealed China's biggest political scandal in two decades admitted defection and did not contest charges of taking bribes and illegal surveillance at his two-day trial ending Tuesday (September 18), a court official said.
Wang Lijun's trial started on Monday (September 17) in Chengdu in southwest China, the city where Wang staged his dramatic flight to the U.S. consulate, with an unannounced closed-door session to hear charges of defection and abuse of power, official Xinhua state news agency said.
An "open trial" to hear charges of bribe taking and "bending the law for selfish ends" was held on Tuesday, said Xinhua.
Wang, ex-police chief of southwestern Chongqing municipality, sought to conceal the murder of a British businessman by the wife of one of the nation's most senior and ambitious politicians, Bo Xilai, said an official account of the trial.
However, Wang decided to later reopen the investigation.
"Defendant Wang Lijun later demanded that the officers involved in the Chongqing Public Security Bureau restart the file on Gu Kailai, to investigate and supplement evidence, and to preserve material evidence, he also reported Gu Kailai's involvement in murder to relevant government departments, provided evidence and material, actively assisted in re-examination, and made important contributions to breaking trough the case by the public security authorities, so his crime of bending law for selfish ends should be extenuated given the circumstances," court official, Yang Yuquan said.
Wang, 52, lifted the lid on the murder and cover-up of a British businessman in February when he went to a U.S. consulate and, according to sources, told envoys there about the murder that would later bring down Bo.
Within two months of Wang's 24-hour visit to the consulate, Bo was sacked as party boss and from the ruling Communist Party's Politburo and Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was accused of poisoning the businessman.
Yang said Wang voluntarily gave himself up after fleeing to the U.S. consulate.
A former police chief who revealed China's biggest political scandal in two decades admitted defection and did not contest charges of taking bribes and illegal surveillance at his two-day trial ending Tuesday (September 18), a court official said.
Wang Lijun's trial started on Monday (September 17) in Chengdu in southwest China, the city where Wang staged his dramatic flight to the U.S. consulate, with an unannounced closed-door session to hear charges of defection and abuse of power, official Xinhua state news agency said.
An "open trial" to hear charges of bribe taking and "bending the law for selfish ends" was held on Tuesday, said Xinhua.
Wang, ex-police chief of southwestern Chongqing municipality, sought to conceal the murder of a British businessman by the wife of one of the nation's most senior and ambitious politicians, Bo Xilai, said an official account of the trial.
However, Wang decided to later reopen the investigation.
"Defendant Wang Lijun later demanded that the officers involved in the Chongqing Public Security Bureau restart the file on Gu Kailai, to investigate and supplement evidence, and to preserve material evidence, he also reported Gu Kailai's involvement in murder to relevant government departments, provided evidence and material, actively assisted in re-examination, and made important contributions to breaking trough the case by the public security authorities, so his crime of bending law for selfish ends should be extenuated given the circumstances," court official, Yang Yuquan said.
Wang, 52, lifted the lid on the murder and cover-up of a British businessman in February when he went to a U.S. consulate and, according to sources, told envoys there about the murder that would later bring down Bo.
Within two months of Wang's 24-hour visit to the consulate, Bo was sacked as party boss and from the ruling Communist Party's Politburo and Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was accused of poisoning the businessman.
Yang said Wang voluntarily gave himself up after fleeing to the U.S. consulate.