Wang Lijun raped eight police officers in Chongqing: Duowei
Staff Reporter 2012-11-10 13:52
Wang Lijun stands trial in Chengdu on Sept. 24. (Photo/CNS)
Wang Lijun, Chongqing's former police chief who triggered China's largest political scandal in 20 years, took advantage of his position to rape eight female police officers, according to Duowei News, a media outlet operated by overseas Chinese that sometimes makes claims that are difficult to prove.
Wang brought about the downfall of his former boss, the Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, after he fled to the US consulate in neighboring Chengdu in February with evidence that Bo's wife Gu Kailai had murdered a British businessman. For his own part in covering up the murder, as well as for abusing his power, taking bribes, defection and bending the law for selfish ends, Wang was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Chengdu in September.
An internet user in Chongqing going by name Fang Hong, however, told Duowei that there were other disturbing crimes missing from the charge sheet against Wang.
As Wang sought to reform the image of the police in the southwestern megacity after he was appointed head of public security in June 2008, he established a group of female police officers in charge of traffic control. A total of 13 officers who were graduate students joined the group, and eight of them were sexually assaulted by Wang, according to Fang, who claimed to know the father of one of the women concerned.
Li Zhuang, a former lawyer, had previously claimed on the internet that Wang raped a policewoman in the country's northeast. The woman became pregnant from the rape and filed a lawsuit against Wang, Li claimed.
Wang became Bo's right-hand man when Bo was governor of Liaoning province in China's northeast in 2003 and later followed him to Chongqing. Wang was first appointed director of the public security department in the provincial city of Tieling, where he was noted for his campaigns against corruption and organized crime, campaigns he would later conduct on a larger scale in partnership with Bo in Chongqing.
He was detained by agents of the central government after his trip to the US consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, where he told American officials about Gu's involvement in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last November. Having initially helped to cover up the crime, he ultimately feared that he might be killed by Bo for knowing too much. Bo was removed as party chief in March and suspended from the Politburo in April and will face trial in the coming months having been expelled from the party. Gu Kailai was given a suspended death sentence for Heywood's murder in August.
