Chongqing Municipal Higher People's Court heard appeal arguments Tuesday in the case of Wen Qiang, a former senior judicial official sentenced to death by a lower court in April, after he was found guilty of protecting gangs and other crimes.

At Tuesday's court session, Wen appealed all counts of his verdict, citing mismatch of facts and the conviction itself - asking for a lenient sentence.

Wen said he cooperated with prosecutors and provided information to help the inves-tigations - a consideration for leniency in accordance with the law.

The court did not produce a verdict. The hearing is expected to last a few more days, a spokesman with the higher people's court said.

The 55-year-old Wen served as vice director of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau from 1992 to 2008, and later as director of the Chongqing Municipal Judicial Bureau until he was arrested in September 2009.

A verdict issued by the Chongqing No 5 Intermediate People's Court on April 14 said that Wen was convicted of accepting bribes, protecting criminal gangs, rape and failing to account for his cash and assets.

The court said Wen took bribes totaling more than 12 million yuan ($1.76 million), personally or through his wife, from 1996 to 2009. In return, Wen offered posts to officials and helped local businesses obtain illegal profits.

Wen was also convicted of shielding five major organized crime gangs in Chongqing after accepting bribes worth 756,500 yuan ($110,720).

In August 2007, Wen raped a university student after getting her drunk, the court said.

Wen failed to account for the source of more than 10 million yuan in personal assets.

Wen was the highest-ranking official to fall from grace in last year's massive clamp-down on organized crimes in Chongqing. More than 90 local officials were prosecuted and 42 of them were found guilty of sheltering criminal gangs.

The ruling of the appeal court is final.

If his case is rejected, Wen's death sentence still needs to be forwarded to the Supreme People's Court for review before he is executed.

The spokesman for the higher people's court said they would also go over the appeals made by four other appellants namely Wen's wife, Zhou Xiaoya, as well as three other former police officers. The four were given prison terms ranging from eight to 20 years.

Xinhua - Global Times