Five witnesses in the bribery trial of a county Party leader in Luzhou, Southwest China's Sichuan Province have been arrested after retracting their testimony and claiming the leader was framed, several insiders confirmed Sunday.
Li Mei, the sister of Li Bo - the former secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee in Hejiang county, who stands accused of bribery - was detained by Luzhou police on Tuesday for impeding testimony and has not been allowed to see her family or her lawyer since then, Li Mei's husband Jiang Xingli told the Global Times on Sunday.
Former Hejiang county Party secretary Li Bo has denied accusations that he took bribes of 43.83 million yuan ($6.6 million) and said at trial that he was framed because he offended a businessman who has ties with a Luzhou official, news site caixin.cn reported.
The Intermediate People's Court in Luzhou held three separate hearings - on April 20, July 14 and July 29 - in the case, which involves the highest amount of embezzled funds seen in the area in recent years, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.
All five witnesses withdrew their previous testimony against Li Bo in trials in July, and three allegedly said their testimony was given under torture by the authorities, the Chongqing Morning Post reported.
In addition to Li Mei, two other witnesses in the case were arrested by Luzhou police on August 8 for impeding testimony, and their whereabouts also remain unknown, Jiang said.
Luzhou's public security bureau said Saturday on its official Sina Weibo account that it arrested and filed charges against suspects on August 5 for perjury in Li Bo's case, while others were arrested on August 8 for impeding testimony.
Zeng Weichang, Li Mei's lawyer, told the Global Times that he received notice from Luzhou public security officials that Li Mei was placed under surveillance in Xuyong county, and he was later told that she was being kept in the office of Xuyong's local environmental bureau.
It is against legal regulations for the police to detain Li Mei and then put her under surveillance with less than one day's notice, Zeng said.
Zeng and Jiang confirmed with the Global Times that Xuyong police told them they could not see Li Mei until Monday.
Li Bo's lawyer Zhu Mingyong told the Global Times that police have impaired the judicial process by arresting the witnesses. "It is the court's responsibility to judge whether the witnesses have given false testimony, not the police," Zhu explained.
