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Notorious gang on trial
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THE crime shocked the whole country: a daytime holdup of an armoured car on a city street that left seven people dead in a hail of bullets.
Zhang Jun, the alleged leader of the bloody September 1 robbery and 21 other crimes in the biggest spree of brutal robberies in New China, went on trial on Saturday.
Eighteen men and women accused of being members of his gang, who allegedly murdered and robbed their way through central China for much of the 1990s, stood trial with him.
Yesterday Zhang and other gang members traded blame at court.
On Saturday at a court in the central city of Chongqing, Zhang and other gang members were accused of an eight-year crime spree that left 28 dead, including those killed on September 1, and netted 5.5 million yuan (US$670,000) in cash and gold jewellery.
Prosecutors accused Zhang of personally leading the September 1 ambush on the armoured car as it pulled into a bank in downtown Changde City, Hunan Province.
Three men in ski masks opened fire, killing the driver, three guards and a bank employee, only to find the armoured car empty.
The three escaped by commandeering a taxi, killing the driver. As they pulled away, a final volley of bullets killed a bystander and wounded at least three others. The speeding car also struck and injured a three-year-old girl.
China proclaimed Zhang most wanted in a nationwide manhunt. Three weeks later, he was caught during a rendezvous with a mistress. Police found him carrying a pistol, 180 bullets and an anti-tank grenade.
Zhang began his string of robberies in 1993, sometimes acting alone and sometimes with Li Zejun, another alleged gang leader, and other gang members, the indictment said.
Yesterday's newspaper photos showed Zhang and the others lined up in handcuffs before judges as the crying relatives of the victims looked on.
If found guilty, Zhang and Li, face execution. According to police reports, Zhang has confessed to the 28 murders, 22 of which were premeditated.
Four of Zhang's mistresses are also being tried in the two cases. Three of the women have children with other men and are all co-operating with police, reports said.
"In your first crime, you shot a 60-year-old old man, and in your last you used a car to crush a three-year-old child. How do you explain yourself?" Zhang was quoted as being asked by a reporter.
"That's the breaks. I needed money," he replied, according to yesterday's Beijing Youth Daily.
The trial has garnered enormous public attention. Yesterday's Shenzhen Evening News said scalpers sold the admission card for the public gallery as high as 2,000 yuan each.
The trial, which is expected to last three days, came as the government launched a campaign against crime.(SD-Agencies)
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