Peng Changjian, former deputy director of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, listens during sentencing yesterday.

The former deputy police chief of Chongqing Municipality was jailed for life yesterday for protecting gangs, amid an ongoing crime sweep in the city.

The sentence also reflects 47-year-old Peng Changjian receiving 4.71 million yuan (US$689,000) in bribes from 1998 to 2009, as well as possessing 4.6 million yuan in unexplained assets.

Peng is the first senior officer to be convicted for protecting gangs. Another five top policemen face similar charges, including his boss, Wen Qiang.

Peng's sentence is intended to serve as a precedent and test case for Wen and the remaining four officers.

Wen, 55, the former deputy director of Chongqing municipal public security bureau for 11 years and short-lived former director of Chongqing justice bureau, is accused of accepting 15.46 million yuan in bribes, rape, protecting six gangs and possessing 10.62 million yuan in unexplained assets.

The court hearing the allegation of rape against Wen is closed to the public "over concerns for the victim's privacy". The case is believed to hold the potential for a plea bargain between the local authority and the former director, according to a local lawyer who wished to remain anonymous.

Wen was sent to trial almost six month after he was detained in Beijing last August.

The remaining four senior officers face the same accusations of accepting bribes, partially from gangs, as well as offering protection to them. The outcome of their trials was due to be resolved shortly after the Chinese Spring Festival.

The four are: Huang Daiqiang, 48, former deputy head of the criminal police division under the municipal police bureau; Chen Tao, 48, deputy head of the city's public security police division; Zhao Liming, 50, deputy head of the city's public transportation security police division; and Chen Honggang, 55, former head of the municipal traffic police division.

The Chongqing No 1 intermediate people's court said yesterday that from 1998 to 2009 Peng had accepted bribes to protect three mafia-style gangs involved in organized crime, including prostitution.