Sunday 27 September 2009

‘Dead’ senior officer held for alleged bribery

A senior Chongqing police officer who had reportedly died while in detention is alive and was formally arrested yesterday on bribery charges, state media reported.

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‘Dead’ senior officer held for alleged bribery

Ivan Zhai
26 September 2009

A senior Chongqing police officer who had reportedly died while in detention is alive and was formally arrested yesterday on bribery charges, state media reported.

The government-run Sichuan Online website had said Peng Changjian, the municipality’s former deputy police chief who was under investigation for links with organised crime, died of a heart attack.

But Xinhua said yesterday the Chongqing’s People’s Congress had permitted the formal arrest of Peng, who had received 820,000 yuan (HK$932,300) and HK$100,000 in bribes. In return, he had helped other people conduct illegal business, the report said.

Xinhua also said Xu Qiang, former head of police in Chongqing’s Dianjiang county, had been formally arrested for corruption.

In January, Xu took 80,000 yuan from Dianjiang traffic police for personal expenses, it said. Early last year, Xu reportedly accepted a car worth nearly 140,000 yuan from one of his subordinates.

The report said he also gave 280,000 yuan in bribes to Chongqing’s former deputy police chief, Wen Qiang, three years ago.

Wen, who went on to become the municipality’s justice chief, was arrested on August 7 and found to have amassed 1 billion yuan in property and cash.

The high-profile war on organised crime launched by Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai in June is still under way. Wen and Peng were the most senior of the more than 2,000 people arrested. The list includes officials, police, businesspeople and gang bosses.

Meanwhile, an article on another government-run website yesterday said previous municipality leaders had also launched crackdowns against organised crime. The unusual article, which highlighted the efforts of Bo’s predecessors, was posted in a prominent position on Hualong Net, which is owned by the Chongqing Daily, mouthpiece of the municipality’s party committee.

“Through the years, major leaders of the city’s party committee and government have paid great attention to the struggle against organised crime,” the article said.

Overseas media have speculated that the present crackdown, which has brought down a number of senior officials who worked under former Chongqing party boss Wang Yang, is aimed at embarrassing Wang, who is now Guangdong party secretary. Wang, like Bo, is a political rising star and a strong candidate for senior State Council positions.