Lu Yan, former secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Yangpu District in Shanghai, was sentenced to 17 years

This reporter learned from the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court that on September 24, the court publicly pronounced a verdict on Lu Yan, former member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Yangpu District CPC Committee and former secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, for accepting bribes, embezzlement, and harboring and conniving at triad organizations.

After trial, the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court ascertained that between 1995 and 2019, defendant Lu Yan took advantage of his position or the convenience of his authority and status to solicit and illegally accept property given by relevant units and individuals, equivalent to a total of more than 11.79 million yuan. From 2009 to 2010, defendant Lu Yan took advantage of his position to falsely report passive resettlement personnel and falsify relevant resettlement approval materials to illegally purchase a relocation and resettlement house worth more than 740,000 yuan at a relocation price of more than 270,000 yuan, and illegally occupied public property worth more than 470,000 yuan.

In October 2017, defendant Lu Yan learned at a relevant special conference in Yangpu District that in a housing lease contract dispute case lawfully enforced by the Yangpu District Court, the relevant company and individual headed by Zhao Fuqiang deliberately used the name of Shanghai Xiaoge Property Management Co., Ltd. and other units or individuals outside the case to illegally collect and transfer huge housing rents and other illegal and criminal acts. In the second half of 2018, Lu Yan accepted Zhao Fuqiang's request to greet Ren Yongfei, then president of the Yangpu Court, and asked for attention to the bankruptcy case of Xiaoge Property Company, which was being heard by the court, so that the company could survive.

In the first half of 2019, defendant Lu Yan learned that the Yangpu Public Security Bureau had filed a case and investigated Zhao Fuqiang's case involving criminal syndicates and evil forces, and reported the above situation to him. In May of the same year, after the defendant Lu Yan learned that the public security organs were about to arrest Zhao Fuqiang, he met with Zhao Fuqiang in his office on the morning of May 15 and persuaded him to leave Shanghai as soon as possible. That night, Zhao Fuqiang and others fled Shanghai. At about 13:00 the next day, the public security organs arrested Zhao Fuqiang and others in Taixing City, Jiangsu Province.

The Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court held that defendant Lu Yan's conduct had constituted the crime of accepting bribes, embezzlement, and harboring and conniving at a mafia-type organization, and should be punished for several crimes in accordance with law. Accordingly, defendant Lu Yan was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for two years, and a fine of RMB2 million for accepting bribes; three years and six months imprisonment for embezzlement and a fine of RMB200,000; and six years' imprisonment for harboring and conniving at a mafia-type organization, deprivation of political rights for one year, and a decision to carry out a fixed-term imprisonment of 17 years, deprivation of political rights for three years, and a fine of RMB 2.2 million; and recover illegal gains in accordance with law.

(Source: People's Daily client Shanghai Channel)