Disgraced official angry he cannot buy way out of jail

• Source: Global Times
• [04:06 November 19 2009]
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By Lin Meilian

An official in Anhui Province who was convicted of bribery in a corruption scandal said he was double-crossed by a judge who sentenced him to two years in prison despite a promise to drop all charges if he contributed to a court charity.

The disgraced Party secretary of a village, Tu Chunxi, said that in mid-July, he received a call from a criminal court judge, saying that if he "donated" 60,000 yuan ($8,600) to a crime victim in a separate case, the court would "reconsider" his sentence.

Tu replied he could only afford half of the "charity money." The next day, judge Duan Limei called again and said if Tu could come up with 40,000 yuan ($5,858), he would be a free man.

Tu said he followed the judge's instructions, donated the money, and received a receipt for 40,000 yuan from Zhang Ziying, an accuser who had not been compensated in a separate case.

Tu, 47, had already been convicted for bribing a superior official in Linquan county, with 30,000 yuan ($4,300), in hopes that a job could be arranged for his son, anhuinews.com, a news website hosted by Anhui Daily press group reported.

When the verdict was handed down late July, it turned out that Tu's donation had failed to buy his way out of jail. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years probation.

Feeling the judge had deceived him, Tu appealed his sentence to the Fuyang Inter-mediate People's Court. The court upheld the sentence, saying, "Tu's donation has nothing to do with his verdict."

Judge Duan told the news outlet that the donation was the court's first attempt to raise funds for victims who failed to receive compensation from their offenders, noting that the "donation" was totally voluntary and the court had come up with the idea on its own.

"We found out that some accusers are indeed living in poverty," Judge Duan said. "We hoped the donations from other defendants would help them."