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Pop singer's application for bail rejected

By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-11 08:14

Pop singer Zang Tianshuo, charged with harboring a member of a gang, has been refused bail.

Pop singer Zang Tianshuo (R) has been arrested for his alleged involvement in gang fights. [Sina.com]

Zang is also being questioned about his involvement in a fight in which one person was killed and several others injured.

The singer has hired a lawyer and people are optimistic about the outcome, Chengdu Business Daily quoted his agent surnamed Wang as saying on Monday.

Zang is cooperating with the police in their investigations, Shaanxi-based Chinese Business View quoted a close friend as saying. He was not named.

"It is not a big issue. But the media has blown it up," Wang said.

"The more they write about it, the more guilty 'Brother Zang' is made out to be. The truth will be out when the court announces its verdict."

Related readings: Singer arrested for link to mob violence

The 44-year-old Beijing resident was detained on Sept 28 after he was found to have provided a hiding place for his friend, Lu Changchun, 43, from Jilin province. Lu worked in Zang's bar in Langfang, Hebei province.

Lu was on the run from police in connection with plotting several gang fights in Beijing and Hebei. He was later arrested by the police.

Zang, together with 20 others who were arrested for the gang fights, was accused of being harboring Lu.

Beijing Television ran a program on Friday showing Zang's arrest on Sept 28.

Known for his hit Friends, Zang made his last appearance at a charity performance in August in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The Beijing-based Money Talks magazine ran an interview with him in September last year in which he discussed his various businesses.

Zang's website has been shut down and the phones of his company disconnected.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that the case will soon be transferred to a prosecutor's office for legal proceedings.

It said investigations had taken some time because the case was complicated and involved criminal gangs.