Trial of 15 alleged gangsters concludes

A court in Shandong province has concluded the trial of 15 defendants accused of multiple gang-related crimes and rape.

Dongchangfu District People’s Court in Liaocheng closed its proceedings on Saturday night after a threeday hearing and said a verdict would be announced later.

Prosecutors said the defendants, led by Wu Xuezhan, organized and participated in gang-related activities, extortion, home invasions, illegal detention, intentional injury and rape.

Since 2010, Wu, 35, ordered fellow defendants — some of whom were employees of his two registered real estate companies in Guanxian county — to use violence to collect debts and destroy people’s property, the court was told.

“The gang used threats to influence government and law enforcement officials, damaged private cars, prevented banks from issuing loans and interfered in companies’ operations,” prosecutors said, adding that some of the accused also raped women while carrying out gangrelated offenses.

Wu and his co-defendants came under national scrutiny in March last year when Yu Huan, a 22-year-old from Liaocheng, accused them of racketeering in his appeal of a life sentence for killing a debt collector.

Yu stabbed four men hired by Wu to collect money from his mother, Su Yinxia, in early 2016. One of them, Du Zhihao, died from his injuries.

In February last year, Liaocheng Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Yu to life in prison for intentional injury. He appealed, saying that the debt collectors had used violence and insults, and that his actions were in self-defense.

The Shandong High People’s Court reduced Yu’s sentence to five years in prison in June.

Wang Wenguang, the lawyer for Yu’s mother, attended the three-day trial in Shandong. He said on Sunday that his client had accused 12 of the 15 defendants of using violence to collect debts and other gangrelated activities.

“Wu denied all the accusations, and the others would not confess,” he said.

Eight defendants pleaded guilty during the trial to illegal detention and home invasion, he added.