Tangshan restaurant assault chief suspect gets 24-year jail sentence

Chen Jizhi, a prime offender in a barbecue restaurant attack on women diners in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined 320,000 yuan (US$45,065).

The combined punishment for his several offenses was handed down by a people's court in the province's Langfang City on Friday after an open trial held from last Tuesday to Thursday.

The other 27 gang members have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from six months to 11 years.

Nineteen of them also have been handed fines from 3,000 to 135,000 yuan, according to the court judgment.

Six offenders, including Chen, were ordered by the court to compensate four victims for their medical and nursing expenses, food and nutrition costs, transport expenses and losses due to work absences.

The trial heard that Chen and eight others dined at a barbecue restaurant on Jichang Road in Tangshan's Lubei District around 2:40am on June 10.

Chen harassed a woman surnamed Wang, who was eating in the restaurant with three other friends. After Wang rebuffed him, Chen, helped by other accomplices, violently beat her and her companions who tried to fight back and defend themselves.

Five attackers, Chen Jizhi, Ma Yunqi, Liu Bin, Chen Xiaoliang and Li Xin, struck and kicked the four women and beat them with chairs and beer bottles inside the restaurant, on the sidewalk in front of it, and in an alley beside it.

Shen Xiaojun, one of the attackers, threatened one of the women not to report the incident to the police.

The court said Chen and seven accomplices had committed other crimes since 2012, including illegal detention, affray, intentional injury, running casinos, robbery, concealing illegal incomes, and involvement in cybercrime by means of violence and threats.

The gang, with Chen as its head, had caused harm to the local economy and normal social order, bringing about adverse social influences, the court said.