Two high-ranking officials in Yangpu District were given prison terms for taking bribes and shielding a mafia-like crime ring.

Lu Yan, former secretary of the politics and law committee of the Party committee of Yangpu District, was sentenced to 17 years in jail. The 53-year-old was also deprived of his political rights for three years and fined 2.2 million yuan (US$322,500).

Ren Yongfei, 57, former president of the Yangpu District court, was imprisoned for seven and a half years with fines of 500,000 yuan.

Both of them are linked to Zhao Fuqiang, who was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve over 10 charges such as rape, leading a crime ring and fraud on Tuesday.

In 2018, Lu accepted a request from Zhao and convinced court president Ren to harbor Zhao and shield one of his companies in a case, even though the two state functionaries knew the company illegally charged huge rents using violent means, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said.

Last year, after noticing that the police was investigating and would arrest Zhao, Lu tipped off the former, telling him to leave Shanghai as soon as possible.

Although Zhao fled the city, he was caught by police in Taixing in neighboring Jiangsu Province the next day.

The court said that Lu and Ren took advantage of their positions to seek illegitimate benefits for others. According to statistics, Lu accepted money and gifts, involving about 11.8 million yuan, between 1995 and 2019and Ren over 2.5 million yuan from 2003 to 2019.

From 2009 to 2010, Lu also falsely reported the number of people who needed to be relocated and resettled and made fake application materials for resettlement, using over 270,000 yuan to buy for himself a house meant for resettlement and which was worth more than 740,000 yuan.

During the period when the crimes were committed, Lu had worked as section chief of the district committee, director of the district foreign affairs office, and secretary of the politics and law committee of the district Party committee. Ren was a vice president of a law court of Shanghai High People’s Court and vice president of the then Luwan District court.

Last year, Lu was stripped of his Party membership and political position and Ren was also expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from public office.

Further investigations about other cases related to Zhao are still under way, it said.