Former senior provincial official indicted for graft, sheltering mafia-like gangs

BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Wang Like, a former senior Party official in east China's Jiangsu Province, has been indicted on charges of taking and offering bribes, harboring and conniving mafia-like organizations, and forging identity documents, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Wednesday.

Wang was formerly a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and head of the commission for political and legal affairs of the provincial Party committee.

Wang's case has been filed by the People's Procuratorate of Changchun, Jilin Province, to the city's intermediate people's court.

Prosecutors accused Wang of taking advantage of his various posts in Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces to seek benefits for others, accepting huge sums of money and gifts in return.

He was also accused of sheltering and conniving at mafia-like organizations to conduct criminal activities in his role as a state organ functionary for an extended period.

The SPP said the prosecutors had informed the defendant of his litigation rights, interrogated him and listened to the defense counsel's opinions.