Authorities reveal details of prison scandal

The justice department of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has revealed details about a prison scandal in which a prisoner reportedly used smartphones to blackmail several women.

Last week, a prisoner with the surname Wang was reported to have been chatting via the mobile app WeChat to blackmail women that lived near Nehe Prison in Tsitsihar City.

Wang threatened the women with exposing nude videos and pictures of them and succeeded in cheating two of the women out of over 110,000 yuan (about 18,000 US dollars), according to local prosecuting authorities.

According to the department, Wang managed to obtain nude photos from two of the women and coerced them to visit him in prison in June 2014. One of the women, surnamed He, claimed that Wang had sexual intercourse with her in the prison hall, but Wang denied the accusation. The prison guards said they did not see it happen.

Investigators were unable to restore data from the surveillance video footage because the alleged activity occurred too long ago.

According to The Paper, both Wang and He admitted to having sex there in telephone records obtained by the newspaper.

Apart from the sex accusations, Wang owned five cell phones while in prison.

The department said that out of the five phones Wang owned, three were from one of the women, surnamed Li. Li managed to sneak two mobile phones to Wang via prison guards after she left the devices at a vegetable shop outside the prison. Li gave the other to Wang when she was visiting him.

Cell phones are banned in prisons in China and visiting times are monitored by prison guards. The women managed to see Wang by bribing the prison guards, the department said.

The department also confirmed speculation that one of the women is the wife of a policeman, but not with the prison police.

The prison governor and political commissar have been removed from their positions, the department said Tuesday. The Supreme People's Procuratorate said three guards were also being probed for suspected negligence and abuse of power.

The justice department said the case has exposed loopholes in the management of the prison, which allowed guards to aid the prisoner's fraud racket.

Wang's case has caused public outcry about lax supervision and corruption in China's prisons and prompted online discussion.

"Drama! How did it all happen?" said a typical comment on microblog Sina Weibo.

"The authorities need to rethink carefully to avoid similar scandals," read another comment.