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We've told you about Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai's "beat the black" campaign. That was a crackdown that was supposed to target organized crime in Chongqing. But Bo's campaign has been criticized for ignoring the rule of law. We spoke to one lawyer who was imprisoned during the campaign, after trying to defend his client.
Lawyer Li Zhuang first made headlines more than two years ago. He was defending an alleged crime boss targeted by the so-called "beat the black" campaign in Chongqing. That's the same campaign that made Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai and his former police chief, Wang Lijun, famous.
And now that Bo and Wang are in the middle of a growing political scandal, Li Zhuang is making headlines again. That comes after he spent a year and a half in prison.
Li says that the police pressed false charges against him in order to stop his defense of his client, the alleged "gang leader" Gong Gangmo. Gong himself would testify against Li in an act that would save him from execution.
[Li Zhuang, Beijing Lawyer]:
"Out of 34 defendants, Gong was number one. Later, the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth defendants all received the death sentence. Why didn't number one, [Gong get the death sentence]? That's because he turned against me. Basically the Chongqing police told him to do it, or risk losing his life."
Gong told authorities that as his lawyer, Li Zhuang, had told him to give false evidence and to testify that he was tortured while in police custody. On the basis of Gong's testimony, Li was tried and sentenced to 18 months in prison in February 2010.
