"When we were staring at him, he also sent someone to keep an eye on us." A responsible person of The "Little Four Maos" Ren Aijun's special case team involving criminal syndicates in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, said that during the nearly one year of investigating and handling the case, he was cautious when he went home every day and did not dare to go anywhere outside his home and unit.
"Post-70s" Ren Aijun is a well-known figure in the Shanxi underworld. For more than 20 years, he was imprisoned several times and sentenced to life imprisonment twice. During his imprisonment, he lived in a single room, opened a small stove, used a refrigerator, used a computer, enjoyed the "emperor" treatment, and also reduced his sentence 7 times in violation of the law. In 2018, the "XiaoSimao" triad organization was once again smashed, pulling out 93 "protective umbrellas", and the leading cadres of the prison system in Shanxi Province "fell down" for this purpose.
As the three-year special struggle against organized crime and evil draws draw to a close, this rare case of judicial corruption involving criminal syndicates, systematic, and collapsing methods has sounded an alarm bell for us: We must strengthen the supervision and management of the enforcement links "within the high walls" and avoid illegal commutation of sentences and paper-based serving of sentences.
Serving a sentence is equivalent to staying in a hotel
Living in a single room in a prison, setting up a small stove, using a refrigerator, playing with computers, using mobile phones, and even a warehouse for storing things, which seems impossible to outsiders, has become a "routine operation" during Ren Aijun's imprisonment. "He's serving a sentence that's equivalent of staying in a hotel, and everyone else is a waiter." The case officer said.
The case-handling personnel told reporters that Ren Aijun, who is addicted to gambling, even used a computer to participate in gambling in prison, involving tens of millions of yuan in gambling funds. While serving his sentence in Fenyang Prison, Ren Aijun beat Wang Mou, a fellow prison prisoner, for no reason after drinking, because the prison handled it unfairly, Wang Mou set himself on fire, resulting in burns on 90% of the whole body.
Born in 1972, Ren Aijun, alias "Xiao Simao", is the main criminal of the notorious triad organization in Shanxi and widely concerned by the whole country, and was the "new upstart" of taiyuan in the 1990s.
According to the Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court, Ren Aijun was administratively punished by the public security organs in April 1988 for harming others. In December 1994, he was sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment by the Shanxi Provincial High People's Court for participating in robbery, intentional injury, and hooliganism. In September 1995, after Ren Aijun was released on medical parole, he gathered people who had been released from prison and who had been released from religious education and social idlers, set up gambling games and gathered crowds to gamble to amass money, and gradually expanded the scale of the organization, purchased guns, ammunition and vehicles, and systematically carried out illegal detention, extortion, and beating up administrative law enforcement personnel.
Seized tools involved in the case. Courtesy of respondents
In 2003, defendant Ren Aijun was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing and leading a mafia-type organization, and on June 28, 2013, his sentence was commuted and released early.
Zhu Wanjun, vice president of the First Criminal Division of the Taiyuan City Intermediate People's Court, said: Before Ren Aijun was released from prison for the second time, he actively recruited other inmates, and after his release from prison, he quickly gathered and co-opted Zhang Tianshu, Ren Xiaohao, Zhang Guibao, and many others, using relatives, friends, and fellow prisoners as a link, and continued to obtain economic benefits and establish a strong position through the implementation of illegal and criminal activities, thus once again forming an organization of a triad nature.
According to the case-handling personnel, Ren Aijun used violence, threats, or other means to systematically carry out illegal and criminal activities such as picking quarrels and provoking trouble, forced transactions, illegal detention, intentional injury, illegal intrusion into residences, and helping to destroy evidence, using violence, threats, or other means to extract huge economic benefits and support the organization's activities.
"After Ren Aijun's second release from prison, his illegal means were relatively hidden, from violent robbery and injury in the past to a 'soft violence' method of using his notoriety to threaten others, and he intended to rely on the operation of the company to whitewash his identity and black assets." Li Guotao, deputy head of the criminal investigation detachment of the Taiyuan Municipal Public Security Bureau, said.
In February 2018, the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department informed the public that the suspected criminal gang of triad nature, led by Ren Aijun, was once again successfully destroyed by the Taiyuan police. During the investigation, the public security organs arrested a total of 42 criminal suspects, seized 7 firearms and a large number of controlled knives, electric batons, walkie-talkies and other crime tools, froze and recovered 14.442 million yuan of funds involved in the case, seized 25 sets of real estate in Beijing, Taiyuan and other places, and seized 13 cars.
Use "commutation" to the extreme
In early March 2018, the Political and Legal Committee of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee received reports from public security organs at the provincial and municipal levels and reports from the masses, reflecting that during the two sentences of "Little Four Mao" Ren Aijun in 1994 and 2003, there were problems such as internal and external collusion, fraud, and perverted the law to reduce his sentence.
The relevant departments immediately set up a special case verification team to formally carry out the verification work. After reviewing Ren Aijun's seven commutations during his two sentences, it was found that each commutation had falsified meritorious service materials and fictitious performance in prison to varying degrees; in the process, the relevant political and legal units also had problems such as fraud, false supervision, and favoritism and fraud to varying degrees.
In 1994, Ren Aijun was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court in the first instance. After Ren Aijun appealed, the collegial panel of the Shanxi Provincial High People's Court changed the verdict to 6 years' imprisonment in the second instance without verifying his false meritorious materials. During Ren Aijun's first term of imprisonment, Taiyuan No. 1 Prison issued false opinions on medical parole and major meritorious materials for him, and successively served medical parole for 1 year and reduced his sentence by 2 years and 6 months. Ren Aijun was imprisoned for only 7 months.
In 2001, Ren Aijun was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, and in 2003, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for seven counts, including organizing and leading a mafia-type organization, and served his sentence in Fenyang Prison, Jinzhong Prison, Linfen Prison, and Quwo Prison.
The seized firearms involved. Courtesy of respondents
The investigation found that during Ren Aijun's imprisonment, he used the commutation to the extreme, basically because he could reduce it and reduce it, and every time it was the top grid to reduce it. He applied for a commutation in two ways: prison rehabilitation to earn points and major meritorious service. After being sentenced to life imprisonment, ren Aijun had 4 routine commutations and two major meritorious records from imprisonment to his release.
"Normally, after a commutation is requested, it cannot be filed for a second time within two years. Ren Aijun crossed the sentence, using the points to reduce the sentence, immediately change the place, and then carry out meritorious commutation. The relevant staff of the task force said.
Ren Aijun maintained close contact with his ex-wife Zhang Tianshu and others through telephone and other means, and during his imprisonment, Zhang Tianshu ran around and raised funds to help reduce the punishment in violation of the law.
Lawyer Hao Mou, through the relevant leaders of the procuratorate, knew the director of the Shanxi Provincial Prison Administration bureau who was in charge of the deputy director and the director of the relevant department responsible for commutation, and constantly greeted him through other fellow villagers. After taking care of it, Ren Aijun performed badly in prison, but there were too many points to use up.
After the incident of beating the prisoner Wang Mou, Ren Aijun not only did not receive punishment, but also took advantage of this to transfer to Jinzhong Prison and submitted an application for commutation of sentence, and the sentence was reduced from indefinite to 18 years. According to the regulations at that time, felons involved in criminal syndicates and vices needed to constantly change prisons, which was fully utilized by Ren Aijun and would be reduced every time.
Jinzhong Prison used Fenyang Prison to fraudulently give Ren Aijun reward points, and related forged proof of commutation, and requested that his sentence be reduced from life imprisonment to fixed-term imprisonment; Linfen Prison requested that the convict be reduced to 3 years' imprisonment on the grounds that Ren Aijun had made great meritorious performances as determined by Jinzhong Prison.
The regular commutation of sentence did not take a cycle, and Ren Aijun applied for major meritorious service. In 2011, Ren Aijun reported an out-of-prison homicide. In fact, the murder was reported by inmates in the same prison in 2004 and 2007, and when Ren Aijun reported it, the prison transferred the material to the public security department. What others have reported has become the reason for Ren Aijun's great meritorious service.
During his imprisonment, Ren Aijun disobeyed discipline, seriously violated prison rules, and served as a cell boss. For his serious violations of prison regulations, the prison not only did not punish him, but repeatedly wrote down credits and praises for them, and reported for commutation of sentences. The collegial panel of the Shanxi Provincial High People's Court did not strictly control the review of relevant commutation materials, and commuted Ren Aijun's life sentence to 18 years' imprisonment; the judge involved in the case of the Linfen Intermediate People's Court bent the law for personal gain and ruled three times to subtract his fixed-term imprisonment by 1 year, 8 months, 2 years, 1 year, 10 months and 23 days. From the effective date of the life sentence until his release in June 2013, Ren Aijun actually served only 10 years and 2 months in prison.
The special case verification team verified that Ren Aijun's actual performance during his sentence was inconsistent with the results of the prison assessment, and that meritorious service, commutation of sentence, and major meritorious service were suspected of being fraudulent.
In September 2018, the Shanxi Provincial High People's Court, the Taiyuan City Intermediate People's Court, and the Linfen City Intermediate People's Court respectively issued criminal rulings revoking defendant Ren Aijun's commutation of sentence, reinstating his life sentence, depriving him of his political rights for life, and confiscating all personal property.
In 2019, the Taiyuan City Intermediate People's Court ruled in the first instance that defendant Ren Aijun was guilty of organizing, leading, and participating in a mafia-type organization, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, intentionally causing injury, forcing transactions, illegal intrusion into a dwelling, and illegal detention, and was punished in conjunction with the previously sentenced crimes, and decided to carry out a life sentence, deprive him of political rights for life, and confiscate all personal property. The other defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 15 years to 2 years and 6 months, depending on the crime committed. The Shanxi Provincial High People's Court upheld the original judgment in the second instance.
Capture Ren Aijun. Courtesy of respondents
Taking advantage of changes in places of detention to avoid the "risk" of being found illegal in commutation procedures
In the course of investigating ren Aijun's illegal commutation of sentence, the special case verification team found that the relevant political and legal units had problems such as fraud, false supervision, and favoritism and fraud to varying degrees.
In April 2018, the Standing Committee of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee conducted a special study on the special struggle against organized crime and evil forces, digging deep into the "protective umbrella" and severely punishing the problem of mafia-related corruption. The Shanxi Provincial Leading Group for the Special Struggle to Eliminate Organized Crime and Evil Forces quickly coordinated with the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission Supervision Commission, launched a mechanism for the rapid transfer of clues related to criminal syndicates and evil forces, and seriously investigated and dealt with the "protective umbrella" and corruption problems behind ren Aijun's mafia-related gangs.
During the investigation and handling of the case involving ren Aijun, the Political and Legal Committee of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee held a total of 7 special meetings, went to more than 30 units in 5 cities to investigate many times, reviewed more than 50 case file materials, interviewed and investigated more than 60 people, and produced more than 30 conversation records.
After investigation, a total of 93 people involved in the case of organized crime of the nature of the underworld were investigated and punished, including 91 state functionaries, 1 lawyer, and 1 other social worker. Among the state employees, there are 58 in the prison system, 15 in the court system, 8 in the procuratorial system and 10 in the public security system.
The relevant person in charge of the Shanxi Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission Supervision Commission said that this is a judicial corruption nest case intertwined with prisons, courts, procuratorates, public security system personnel and "black" lawyers.
At present, 12 of the investigators are involved in criminal offenses, of which 4 are departmental-level cadres, and the cases have been concluded, and the relevant defendants have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 3 years to 8 years and 6 months; another 32 have been given severe punishments of dismissal from party discipline and government affairs, and 47 have been given serious handling of party discipline and government discipline.
The reporter's investigation found that the Ren Aijun illegal commutation den case exposed the prevalence of "circle culture" and "greeting culture" in some areas of the judicial system, providing soil for abuse of power. Some leading cadres know the law and break the law, and use procedures to evade supervision.
Taking the prison management system of Shanxi Province as an example, from the leaders of the provincial bureau to the leaders of the prison district, most of them are generated from within the system, and they form circles with the relationship between fellow villagers and classmates as a link and rely on each other.
The case-handling personnel said that Wang Wei, then secretary of the party committee and director of the Shanxi Provincial Prison Administration, repeatedly took the initiative to greet the prisons below, and sometimes even urged the prison to handle the commutation materials for "Xiao Simao" as soon as possible.
"Once adhering to principles and giving in to greeting and asking for support, led to abuse of power and provided help for the illegal commutation of the sentence of 'Xiao Simao'." Gao Qi, a former deputy inspector of the Shanxi Provincial Prison Administration, wrote in his confession.
According to relevant laws and regulations, commutation of sentence must be publicized and subject to supervision. Ren Aijun's performance in disobeying discipline in Fenyang Prison, seriously violating prison rules, and acting as a cell boss is known to all in the prison, and if it is publicized in this prison, it will be questioned.
In order to avoid the "risk", the Shanxi Provincial Prison Administration transferred Ren Aijun to Jinzhong Prison and instructed Fenyang Prison to prepare commutation materials, and Jinzhong Prison proposed a commutation opinion. Finally, Jinzhong Prison used Fenyang Prison to fraudulently give Ren Aijun reward points and related forged proof of sentence reduction, and requested that his sentence be commuted from life imprisonment to fixed-term imprisonment.
The gang members wrote a letter of allegiance to Ren Aijun. Courtesy of respondents
Cooperate with the prison administration to take advantage of changes in the place of detention to avoid the "risk" of illegal and fraudulent discovery of commutation procedures. Ren Aijun's other routine commutations and major meritorious commutations have also used this method.
In accordance with procedures, for the commutation of a criminal's sentence, the enforcement organ first submits a recommendation for commutation to a people's court at the intermediate level or above; then the people's court conducts a trial and rules to commute the sentence if there is truly a fact of repentance or meritorious service. Under the influence of the "circle culture" and "greeting culture," the courts and procuratorates that should have played a role in trial supervision have also released water layer by layer, from the president, the president in charge, the president of the courtroom to the presiding judge.
The staff of the special case group said that under the lure of Ren Aijun and others and the threat of criminal syndicates and evil forces, some police officers in the prison management system took the initiative to open a single room and set up a small stove for Ren Aijun in the prison in order to obtain small profits, to facilitate his use of computers and mobile phones, and to connive with him to contact the outside world to reduce criminal convenience. Some policemen even took pride in ren Aijun's efforts to reduce his sentence, and were willing to act as "pawns on horsebacks" and competed to take the initiative to do things for him.
Avoid sweeping black water in the "last mile"
Over the years, in cases investigated and tried by public security departments and tried by courts, in addition to the normal supervision mechanism, they have also faced supervision by victims, the original defendants, and society. The implementation link is within the "high wall", lacking the supervision of society and the victims, and once the procedural supervision fails, the phenomenon of perverting the law will be difficult to avoid.
The recent media exposure of Inner Mongolia's "Batu Menghe Case" and "Wang Yunhong Case" and other "paper sentence" cases are also the same, they have also aroused great concern from all walks of life. The common feature of these cases is that they are "inside the high walls" where it is difficult for the social eye to pay attention to, and the criminals are temporarily served outside of prison in the name of "medical parole", so that after the effective judgment is made, the criminals are not sent to the prison for punishment in accordance with the law, or they are released from prison shortly after being handed over, resulting in the completion of all or most of the sentences imposed on "paper".
In order to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents, to avoid fairness and justice from regressing within the "high wall," and to ensure the effectiveness of the anti-crime campaign, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision and management of prisons and other enforcement links, let the sun shine on the "high wall," and let the criminals get the punishment they deserve.
The first is to further intensify the investigation and handling of the "network of relations" and "protective umbrella" behind the criminal and evil forces, and at the same time cut off their economic foundation to avoid the "resurgence" and "comeback" of the criminal and evil forces.
The police of the special case group said that at the beginning, the "protective umbrella" of the "small four mao" triad organization was not pulled out, and the criminal funds were not completely destroyed, resulting in a resurgence of the ashes soon after its release from prison. After Ren Aijun was released from prison, he successively participated in the production and operation of many companies as an actual investor, with an investment amount of more than 30 million yuan.
Lu Xiaoguo, deputy procurator general of the Taiyuan City People's Procuratorate, said that it is necessary to further intensify the investigation and handling of the "network of relations" and "protective umbrella" behind the criminal and evil forces, and at the same time crack down on money and blood, destroy their economic foundation, and beware of the second time the criminal and evil forces will take advantage of the great momentum.
The second is to avoid "heavy fighting", "heavy sentence" and "light sitting", and release water in the "last kilometer".
After the "little four mao" was commuted and released, it caused extremely strong social repercussions and caused great damage to the credibility of the government and judicial organs. "When Ren Aijun was released from prison for the second time, many people drove a luxury car to greet him vigorously, including people who had followed him and people who wanted to take advantage of his notoriety. This had a very bad social impact at the time. Li Guotao said.
The case-handling personnel of the "XiaoSimao" special case group held that in the struggle to sweep away organized crime and eliminate evil forces, it is necessary to persist in cracking down hard and severely sentencing, intensify supervision in the enforcement link, avoid "heavy crackdowns," "heavy sentences," and "light sitting," and avoid releasing water in the "last kilometer" of the anti-gang crime campaign.
The third is to strengthen the building of grass-roots organizations and avoid some personnel violating discipline and law, and other personnel acting as "straw men."
On the issue of commuting the sentence of Ren Aijun, the prison management system of Shanxi Province has ranged from the director of the provincial prison management bureau, the deputy director in charge, and the responsible persons of important departments and departments to the prison director, the prison district chief, and the prison correctional police, and a large number of personnel have violated discipline and the law, forming systematic corruption. In the face of the temptation of money and the intimidation of the criminal and evil forces, they have lost their political convictions and positions, distorted the law, bent the law for personal gain, and created conditions for Ren Aijun to reduce his sentence.
Other police officers in the prison system turn a blind eye and act as good old men and "scarecrows." Because some people's police work in a relatively closed prison environment all year round, they are ideologically imprisoned and do not want to make progress, and their thinking of "staying up for a long time" and "eating mixed meals" is serious.
Interviewees said that the places where criminal syndicates and evil forces breed are often areas where grass-roots party organizations are weak and scattered, and there are bound to be problems such as weakening of party leadership, lack of party building, and inability to administer the party in an all-round and strict manner. Only by giving full play to the role of party organizations as the core of leadership, truly implementing the responsibility system for grass-roots party building work, and performing the duties of the first responsible person can we build a solid defense line against corruption and degeneration.
The fourth is to make up for the loopholes in the system, strengthen the means of supervision, and avoid the "idling" of the system.
Respondents said that from the ren aijun illegal commutation case, it can be seen that there are loopholes in the system in some key links. In 2003, in order to facilitate prison management and reform of dangerous and recalcitrant criminals, the Shanxi Provincial Prison Administration bureau formed an unwritten provision for the centralized rotation of detention places for criminals involved in criminal syndicates, which in actual implementation has become a means of circumventing publicity and commuting sentences in violation of regulations.
The case-handling personnel said that during the period of serving his sentence in each prison, Ren Aijun had serious violations of prison rules, but he was frequently given credits and praise by the prison, and identified as an active member of prison reform. In order to avoid causing public indignation among other police officers and inmates in the request for commutation of sentences in this prison, the Provincial Prison Administration bureau transferred Ren Aijun to the prison three times in accordance with this unwritten provision.
The relevant responsible person of the Political and Legal Committee of the Shanxi Provincial CPC Committee said that Ren Aijun's use of false meritorious deeds, commendations, and major meritorious service to achieve seven commutations of sentences has concentrated on exposing loopholes in law enforcement and judicial work; it is necessary to improve the law enforcement and judicial system system that is "incorruptible," resolutely put an end to problems such as lax law enforcement and unfair administration of justice in such links as commutation and parole, and ensure that all criminals are not tolerated or indulged.
(Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph)