Yunnan high court upholds gang leader's 25-year sentence

The Yunnan High People's Court on Tuesday upheld the original judgment made by a lower court against Sun Xiaoguo, a high-profile gang leader who had previously served time in prison and was recently convicted of multiple crimes.

Sun was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Yuxi Intermediate People's Court in Yunnan province on Nov 8 for organizing criminal activities, opening gambling houses, disturbing public order, illegal detention, intentional injury, obstructing testimony and offering bribes.

Sun was also deprived of his political rights for five years, and all his private properties were ordered confiscated, according to the ruling.

Twelve other defendants in the gang led by Sun were given sentences ranging from 30 months to 15 years for taking part in organized crimes, it added.

Eight of the convicted, including Sun, appealed to the high court, but the court upheld the original judgments after finding that they were made based on clear facts and sufficient evidence. The application of law was correct and the legal procedures were in line with the law, the court said.

Given that four of the appellants confessed to the crimes and accepted their original punishment, the high court decided to leniently sentence them, but the sentences of the other four, including Sun, were not changed, it added.

On Oct 14, the high court retried a 1998 case involving Sun, who had received the death penalty for multiple crimes but later had his sentence reduced to 20 years in prison. The court had decided to retry the case due to the wrongful application of laws.

Sun was sentenced to death by the Kunming Intermediate People's Court for rape, insulting women, intentional injury and disturbance of public order. The penalty was then reduced to a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve by the high court, and then further reduced to 20 years.

Sun was freed in April 2010 after serving 12 years and five months in prison.

The Nov 8 conviction and the 25-year sentence Sun received－which was upheld by the high court on Tuesday－was the penalty for his gang-related behavior after his 2010 release.

The ruling of the rehearing of Sun's 1998 case will be announced soon, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Sun received national attention in April when a local media outlet reported several gangs, including one led by Sun, were dismantled during a crackdown against organized crime in Kunming.

His case triggered widespread concern over corruption in the judicial and prison systems after follow-up stories revealed Sun had escaped a death sentence after being convicted in 1998 of multiple charges and had been living as a free man.

Separately, on Sunday, 19 defendants, including a few former high-level officials, were sentenced for their duty-related crimes related to Sun.

Sun's mother, former police officer Sun Heyu, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for multiple charges, including bribery and influencing leniency in her son's punishment.

Li Qiaozhong, Sun's stepfather and ex-director of the Wuhua district urban management bureau in Kunming, was sentenced to 19 years in prison on similar duty-related criminal charges.

Seventeen others, including those who worked for the provincial court, public security and prison systems, were given sentences ranging from two to 12 years in prison for illegal leniency in punishing Sun Xiaoguo and reducing his prison terms after receiving bribes from his parents.