Read Online A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel by Wenguang Huang Pin Ho - Free Book Online Page A

People’s Intermediate Court sentenced him to two and a half years in prison and barred him from practicing law for life. Li filed an appeal and in its second review, the court reduced the sentence to eighteen months, citing that Li had cooperated with the court. However, at the sentencing, Li claimed he had been deceived by leaders within the Chongqing government, who promised to release him if he admitted guilt.
    Li’s assertion about confessions made under duress and other abuses was later corroborated by another lawyer, who released videotapes of his client, a wealthy thirty-nine-year-old construction contractor charged with running a crime syndicate and murdering one of his rivals. In the video, the contractor claimed police had coerced him to confess and implicate others—he had been subjected to severe beatingsand sleep deprivation for six months. During his incarceration, he tried to kill himself twice and bit off his own tongue in protest. Medical reports back up these claims. Despite mounting evidence, the court rejected the contractor’s appeal and he was executed in July 2010.
    Even with Li’s imprisonment, Wang was still unhappy. He sent investigators to other cities to collect more evidence against Li. Three months later, Li was prosecuted again on a charge of obstruction during a case that Li had handled in Shanghai two years before. When Li entered the courthouse, a crowd, allegedly brought in by the Chongqing government, chanted, “Clear out all the bad lawyers.” Despite Wang’s pressure, the prosecution eventually withdrew the charge for lack of evidence.
    Fang Hong, an employee in Chongqing’s Fuling district, posted a satirical Weibo comment, calling the lawsuit against Li a “pile of shit.” Police detained Fang and sent him to a Reeducation through Labor Camp for one year. According to Fang’s lawyer, more than 10,000 Chongqing residents had been sent to labor camps by Wang Lijun.
    Between 2009 and 2011, court papers say Wang used the anticrime campaign to terrorize the business community by branding legitimate private businesspeople as mobsters. “The party needs to tie a timed bomb around your waist to make sure you obey orders,” Wang said to a private entrepreneur who was a delegate to the Municipal People’s Congress and vowed to collect petitions calling for Wang to resign. Wang had him arrested on charges that he colluded with organized crime, and his assets were confiscated. “I could have him executed if I want,” Wang remarked. In May 2011, one of Wang’s friends held a fundraiser for a scholarship that sponsored policemen’s studies abroad. Wang advised his subordinates to gather some local entrepreneurs at police headquarters for a “meeting” and blatently solicited money from them. At the end of the meeting, the officer collected 30 million yuan. Wang called this practice “robbing the rich to help the poor.” Using Russian president Vladimir Putin as an example, Wang was quoted as saying, “If there are ten people, four are wealthy and six poor. We only need to get rid of two wealthy ones. The other two would be intimidated and voluntarily give their money away. The six poor folks would applaud our actions.”
    The Washington Post reported that the public security bureau confiscated the assets—estimated at US $700 million—of Li Jun, once one of the richest men in Chongqing. Li now lives as an exile in Canada. Eight of his relatives are languishing in a Chinese jail and his business empire is under police control.
    The businessman, originally from Hubei province, moved to Chongqing in 1984 as a soldier in the army and after five years of service, set up a small trading business and then a petrol station. Other ventures followed, including a restaurant, a karaoke parlor, and a sauna, all of which, police said, were connected with organized crime.
    Li stated that his arrest was related to a real estate transaction. In 2008, he had purchased a plot of undeveloped