Death sentence for man guilty of 10 charges
The scene at Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday.
A man working in commercial leasing has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over 10 charges that included rape, leading an underworld-like organization, offering bribes and fraud, Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said on Tuesday.
It said 37 others related to the case received prison sentences of up to 20 years.
The court said Zhao Fuqiang had monopolized housing resources through cheating and had resolved lease disputes with threats and violence since 2004. He had bribed nine state functionaries with nearly 2 million yuan (US$295,000) since 2007. Zhao had also provided places for them to visit prostitutes.
Since 2010, he had recruited several women to provide sexual services.
In 2014, Zhao organized others to steal goods worth over 79,000 yuan. He had also illegally acquired state-owned assets, more than 54 million yuan in total, through fraud.
Between 2017 and 2019, Zhao raped five women.
The court said that Zhao and the 37 others had been involved in 84 cases of fraud, 15 cases of forced transactions, six cases of extortion and seven cases of picking quarrels and provoking trouble since 2014.
Further investigations involving state functionaries are underway, the court said.
