Death sentence?

An online poll on popular forum qq.com showed that 71 percent of the 2,180 people polled by 6 pm yesterday said they believed Wen will be executed immediately.

Fourteen percent said Wen will get death with reprieve, while 8 per cent said he will be sentenced to life imprisonment.

"Wen Qiang did not kill someone or set up a fire, so the death penalty would be too severe and unjust," said local bank clerk Tony Chen, 33.

"He will not live otherwise other corrupt senior officials who have dodged this wave of crackdowns cannot sleep soundly," a netizen Dayuebo posted on another popular forum.

"If Wen is sentenced to death, he will have more people buried alongside him as he will tell on other officials' misconduct," an online user who went by the name Bubiande No 23 said.

In the early days of Wen's detention, he threatened: "If you sentence me to death, I will tell everything so let's wait for death together," the Guangzhou Daily reported an unnamed police as repeating Wen's remarks.

The newspaper reported that Wen's attitude during subsequent police interrogations changed drastically.

In early September, "as Wen knew that his son who was conducting business in the United States had returned to Chongqing, his line of defense was wrecked completely. He cried remorsefully, saying he failed the Party and the organization, and became cooperative in interrogations", the newspaper quoted police as saying.