The former secretary of Hejiang, Sichuan denied taking bribes of 40 million and reported to Lei Zhengfu. Five witnesses retracted their confessions in court.

On July 31st, Li Bo, the former secretary of Hejiang County Committee of Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, ended the trial of bribery in the first instance. Facing the accusation of bribery of 43.83 million yuan, he only admitted 40,000 yuan.

The case was heard three times, which took a total of 10 days. According to people familiar with the matter, because the amount involved hit a new high in duty crimes in Luzhou and the case was complicated, the case was held five times before the trial.

According to the prosecution’s allegations, Li Bo mainly took bribes to help others in Hejiang County’s development and construction projects and seek benefits. The biggest one was that Li Bo received RMB and performance shares totaling 15 million yuan for helping a real estate project.

The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) attended the trial and learned that during the first trial of the Li Bo case, five witnesses appeared in court, all of whom "retracted their confessions" and denied their testimony that they had paid bribes to Li Bo during the investigation stage.

During the third court session, Li Bo, a former prosecutor, defended himself for a day and a half, denying all the allegations of accepting bribes of 43.83 million yuan except 40,000 yuan in red envelopes and gifts. In addition, Li Bo also reported an on-the-job office official in Luzhou and Lei Zhengfu, former party secretary of Beibei District, Chongqing.

Announcement of the third trial of Li Bo case. The Paper reporter Zhuang Antu

Accused of accepting bribes of 40 million, only admitted to accepting 40 thousand

On suspicion of accepting bribes, in November 2014, Li Bo, deputy director of the United Front Work Department of Luzhou Municipal Committee and former county party secretary of Hejiang County of Luzhou City, was investigated by the Commission for Discipline Inspection. On February 14th, 2015, Luzhou City Procuratorate arrested Li Bo.

The public prosecutor alleged that from April 2008 to December 2013, when Li Bo was the secretary of Hejiang County Party Committee and the director of Hejiang County Urban Planning Committee, he took advantage of his position to provide help and seek benefits for others in Hejiang County development and construction projects, and illegally accepted bribes totaling 43.83 million yuan, of which 18.6 million yuan promised by the briber was not actually possessed.

The Paper noted that the charges of bribery brought by the public prosecution agency against Li Bo totaled seven large sums. First, Li Bo helped Hejiang "Licheng Peninsula" real estate project, and received RMB 3.1 million from Luo Yongchun, the general manager and shareholder of the project, RMB 11 million from the transfer of performance shares and RMB 900,000 from fruits. Of the 3.1 million yuan, the public prosecutor accused Li Bo of helping his specific relationship Wang Hua (a pseudonym) borrow from Luo Yongchun.

The public prosecutor accused Li Bo of helping Zhou Min, the real estate manager of Hejiang "Jiangyu Long Beach", and receiving 6.39 million yuan, including 2 million yuan for the wedding gift of Li Bo’s niece and 4.39 million yuan for the purchase of a villa for Li Bo’s parents. In addition, Li Bo also accepted a thank-you fee of 8.6 million yuan promised by Zhou Min.

The public prosecutor also accused Li Bo of accepting 3.8 million yuan in cash from Zhao Jiagui, chairman of Xiamen Hengwan Investment Co., Ltd., who was working on a project in Hejiang, and promised a thank-you fee of 10 million yuan; Received 400,000 yuan in cash from Yang Guirong, the legal representative of Hejiang Jiuyang Trading Co., Ltd.; Received 300,000 yuan in cash from Bai Chenglin, the owner of Hejiang concrete mixing station, 200,000 yuan from Jasmine Zhang, a businessman, and 40,000 yuan in two birthday red envelopes.

On the morning of July 29th, the case was heard for the third time in the first instance. The collegial panel announced that the evidence of the investigation organ was legal and valid, and rejected Li Bo and his defenders’ application for "excluding illegal evidence". In the previous trial, all five witnesses who appeared in court denied their testimony that they had paid bribes to Li Bo during the investigation.

Zhao Jiagui, the briber accused in the indictment, testified in court on July 14th. According to an observer who attended the second trial of the first instance, when Zhao Jiagui testified in court, he first gave a gift to Li Bojing in the dock, and then turned to the judge and said that he did send 10 million yuan to Li Bo, but he was sternly refused. He confessed to the case handlers that there was no such thing as bribing Li Bo 13.8 million yuan.

I was a prosecutor and spent a day and a half defending myself.

According to public information, before entering politics, Li Bo obtained a junior college diploma in law from Southwest University of Political Science and Law from 1988 to 1990, and worked as an assistant prosecutor in Luxian County Procuratorate from 1990 to 1991, responsible for reviewing cases and bringing public prosecutions.

On July 31st, Li Bo’s trial in the first instance ended, which took 10 days. Among them, during the third court session from July 29th to 31st, Li Bo, a former prosecutor, defended himself for one and a half days. In response to the allegations of bribery of 43.83 million yuan, except for the red envelope gift of 40,000 yuan, Li Bo denied it and reported other officials in court.

The Paper noticed at the trial site on July 31 that Li Bo reported the witness Luo Mou who was accused of bribing him, an office official who was still working in Luzhou, and Lei Zhengfu, the former party secretary of Beibei District.

As for the witness Luo, Li Bo reported his alleged embezzlement, on the grounds that Luo had testified to the case-handling organ that the 11 million yuan paid to Li Bo came from the 17 million yuan share proceeds paid by others to his company. In this regard, Li Bo said that he did not accept it and suspected that it was illegally possessed by Luo, so he asked the public security organ to find out whether Luo had encroached on the above money.

Reporting Lei Zhengfu’s omission, the prosecutor said it would be verified by the court.

Li Bo also reported in court that Luo had been engaged in construction engineering and real estate development in Chongqing for a long time. In 2013, he was investigated for the case involving Lei Zhengfu, former secretary of the district party committee of Beipei District, Chongqing. However, when the relevant departments in Chongqing investigated Luo, Luo concealed the fact that he had paid bribes to Lei Zhengfu for several facades.

Lei Zhengfu’s case has attracted much public attention because many officials, including Lei, were involved in the "pornographic photos". On June 19th, 2013, Lei Zhengfu’s case was heard in public in Chongqing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court. The Paper verified that Lei was suspected of taking bribes amounting to nearly 3.16 million yuan, but it did not involve the fact that businessman Luo paid bribes to him.

During the trial of Li Bo case, Li Bo provided the above clues to the court, arguing that Lei Zhengfu case was suspected of omission. The public prosecutor said in the trial that Li Bo’s report on Lei Zhengfu should be verified by the court and then transferred to the judicial department with jurisdiction for investigation.

"Taking the trial as the center is the requirement of the Central Political and Legal Committee and the Supreme Court." During the trial, Li Bo, a former prosecutor before taking office as the county party secretary, repeatedly invoked the Criminal Procedure Law and related judicial interpretations to defend himself, and repeatedly asked the collegial panel to pay attention to his confession in court and the testimony of witnesses testifying in court.

The public prosecution agency believes that during his tenure as secretary of Hejiang County Party Committee, Li Bo took advantage of his position to give support and care to many projects, and accepted bribes of 25.23 million yuan and promised benefits of 18.6 million yuan. The facts are clear and the evidence is conclusive. According to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment (IX), he should be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for bribing 25.23 million yuan, and promising benefits of 18.6 million yuan is an attempt, which can be given a lighter punishment.

On the afternoon of July 31, the first-instance trial of the case ended. In his final statement, Li Bo still insisted on his innocence. The court announced that it would pronounce the sentence on an alternative date.