Chinese cop's death sentence for rape, bribery upheld

New Delhi, May 22 (ANI): A former Chinese deputy police chief has been sentenced to death, after his appeal to escape capital punishment was rejected by the court.

Wen Qiang was convicted for accepting bribes, protecting gangs, rape and property scamming.

The Chongqing People's Court upheld the capital punishment handed down to Wen Qiang in light of inexorable evidence of Wen's misdemeanour and the negative impact of it.

In August 2007, Wen raped a university student after getting her drunk, the verdict said.

Wen failed to account for the source of more than 10 million yuan in personal assets.

He has denied protecting gangs and raping the girl, and insisted that he deserved "leniency" during the second trial as he had cooperated during the investigation and also made many contributions to the city in the past years.

People who had collected outside the court set off fire-crackers in celebration when they heard the final verdict.

"As a police official and a legal worker, he broke the law to a huge extent, I strongly agree that he should be executed, so that other officials will be warned," a man outside the court told China Daily.

According to the paper, apart from the death penalty, the court also ordered all of Wen's personal property to be confiscated and deprived of his political rights for life.

The appeals of the other five co-defendants, including Wen's wife, Zhou Xiaoya, and three of Wen's subordinate police officials, were also rejected by the court.

However, there were others who felt that the sentence was too harsh for a crime like bribery.

"I still think the death penalty should not be handed down except for extraordinary severe criminals, and it's kind of sad to see so many people celebrate the death sentence with fireworks," a municipal official told the paper.

During his 16-year tenure in the police and justice bureaus, 640,000 criminal cases remained unsolved and 1,447 murders were not investigated, the China Youth Daily reported last week. (ANI)