MCLC: Wang Lijun sentence to 15 years

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Wang Lijun sentence to 15 years
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (9/23/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/world/asia/wang-lijun-verdict.html

Police Chief in Chinese Murder Scandal Convicted and Sentenced to 15 Years
By EDWARD WONG

BEIJING — Chinese court officials have found Wang Lijun, a former police
chief, guilty of four criminal charges after he fled to a United States
Consulate last February and told diplomats there that the wife of a senior
politician had murdered a British businessman, according to a report on
Monday by Xinhua, the state news agency.

Mr. Wang, 52, originally from Inner Mongolia, was found guilty of
defection, abuse of power, taking bribes and bending the law for personal
gain, the report said. The People’s Intermediate Court in Chengdu, where
the trial took place last week, sentenced Mr. Wang to 15 years in prison.

Verdicts in Chinese criminal cases, especially those with a political
dimension, are often predetermined. Mr. Wang’s sentence was relatively
lenient; court officials had made the argument last week that mitigating
factors should be taken into account when determining the verdict and
punishment.

In February, Mr. Wang spent nearly 36 hours at the consulate in Chengdu,
capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, and set off one of the
biggest political scandals here in a generation. He told diplomats that Gu
Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, a Communist Party leader, had poisoned the
Briton, Neil Heywood, in November.

After an overnight stay, Mr. Wang left the consulate in the custody of
state security officers and presumably told investigators, too, about the
murder. Mr. Bo was removed last March as party chief of the southwestern
metropolis of Chongqing, where Mr. Wang had served as police chief, and
was suspended from the Politburo a month later.

Ms. Gu was convicted last month of murder
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/murder-trial-of-bo-xilais-wif
e-concludes.html?ref=boxilai> and given a death sentence with a two-year
suspension, which means she will probably wind up with a long prison term
and not be put to death.

With Mr. Wang’s trial over, Mr. Bo is the one remaining major figure in
the matter yet to be tried. Speculation abounds over whether there will be
an announcement or leaked statements concerning his fate before China’s
once-a-decade leadership transition, which is expected this fall. There
has been speculation, too, about whether Mr. Bo, who was being
investigated for what the state news media called “serious disciplinary
violations,” will face criminal charges or suffer punitive measures within
the party system.

On Wednesday, Xinhua released an official account of Mr. Wang’s trial,
including testimony asserting that Mr. Bo had slapped Mr. Wang on Jan. 29,
a day after Mr. Wang told Mr. Bo about his suspicions over Ms. Gu’s role
in the Heywood murder.

The public announcement of that episode indicated that the party might try
Mr. Bo on a criminal charge of attempting to cover up the murder. (Even
before the Xinhua report, American officials had said that Mr. Wang told
American diplomats in Chengdu that Mr. Bo had hit him.)

The Xinhua article did not name Mr. Bo as the person who slapped Mr. Wang,
but the phrase used to describe him left no doubt about the slapper’s
identity.

The official account of the trial also emphasized arguments from both the
prosecutors and defense lawyers asking the court to show leniency toward
Mr. Wang. The account said Mr. Wang had cooperated with investigations
into transgressions by others. This was a reference to Ms. Gu’s case, but
it might also have indicated that Mr. Wang helped with the inquiries
concerning Mr. Bo.

Court officials also laid out Mr. Wang’s role in the Heywood murder. Mr.
Wang was accused of helping cover up for Ms. Gu after she told him that
she had killed Mr. Heywood, and he was formally charged with bending the
law for personal gain. Court officials also said that one day before the
murder, Mr. Wang spoke about Mr. Heywood with Ms. Gu and agreed to keep
the Briton under surveillance.

During Ms. Gu’s trial, court officials said Ms. Gu had killed Mr. Heywood
because she believed he was threatening her son, Bo Guagua, who graduated
from a master’s program at Harvard University this summer.
The court account of Mr. Wang’s trial had a bizarre description of the
son’s trying to drive to meet Mr. Wang at a city outside Chongqing one
night and almost getting into an accident. That story was included in the
account to show rising tensions between Mr. Wang and Ms. Gu in the weeks
after the murder.

After Bo Xilai hit Mr. Wang on Jan. 19, the account said, Mr. Wang ordered
his police allies to collect evidence that would show Ms. Gu’s involvement
in the murder. Mr. Wang had several police officers keep separate pieces
of evidence, including a blood sample from Mr. Heywood’s heart and a
secret recording Mr. Wang had made of Ms. Gu confessing to him. After the
authorities took him to Beijing, the account said, Mr. Wang asked a police
ally, Li Yang, to turn over the blood sample to investigators.

Mr. Wang’s lawyer, Wang Yuncai, who is not related to Mr. Wang, has said
the Xinhua account of the proceedings was mostly accurate. But she
disputed the accusation that Mr. Wang had taken bribes from two associates
of the Bo family.

Patrick Zuo contributed research.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 24, 2012

An earlier version of this story misidentified the date on which the
former Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai was said to have slapped
the former police chief Wang Lijun. It was Jan. 29, not Jan. 19.