CHANGCHUN: A court in Changchun, northeast China’s Jilin Province, on Monday sentenced Liu Lijun, an organizer and leader in a case of gang-related crimes, to 25 years in prison.
Liu was convicted of multiple crimes including organizing and leading gang-related crimes, murder, blackmail, forcing transactions, gathering people to disturb social order, bribery and faking official documents. The other 22 members of Liu’s criminal ring were also sentenced to between two and a half years and 23 years in prison.
Furthermore, the members will have their personal property confiscated or be fined. The property of their criminal ring will also be confiscated. The court found that over an extended period of time, Liu’s criminal ring had lent money at exorbitant interest rates to many real estate developers in the city of Yushu in Jilin and used violence and other illegal measures to collect the debts. Members of the ring also forcibly seized the debtors’ mortgaged properties and other property, bullied local residents and disturbed public order. The court said many victims were too intimidated to report the crimes to the police.
It also found that Liu’s ring had bribed multiple government officials to facilitate and provide illegal protection for their criminal acts. –Agencies
