Gang boss Wang Xiaojun was sentenced to life in jail on Monday for crimes including running brothels and gambling websites in?Chongqing municipality.

Gang boss Wang Xiaojun is sentenced to life on Monday.

The sentencing came two days before the scheduled judgment of the alleged gang protector - Chongqing's former justice chief and deputy police director Wen Qiang.

The sensational conviction of Wang, coming after a trial filled with horrific and lurid stories, has re-ignited the public's interests in the city's massive gang-crushing operation, which has ebbed and rarely made newspaper headlines in the past two months.

Chief Judge Tang Wei of the ruling court - the No 5 Intermediate People's Court in Chongqing - told reporters on Monday afternoon that the court found Wang had opened a male prostitution den named "Traveler's Harbor" in central Chongqing's Yudu hotel in 2006.

Prosecutors have also said one of the gang's former associates, Song Yu, who owed 2.6 million yuan ($380,000) in gambling debts to Wang's organization, was forced to cut off his left ring finger and little finger last April to get temporary relief from debt collectors.

Prosecutors also accused Wang of having reaped 59 million yuan from organizing hundreds of female prostitutes in his club named "Haocheng" between 2004 and 2009, and gained 20 million yuan from running online gambling websites.

The court decided that Wang intentionally injured people and bribed four senior police officials with 1.28 million yuan - including Wen and another former deputy director of the municipal police bureau - to attain protection for his illegal businesses and to cover up crimes of his gangs.

The court also meted out a 16-year jail term for Li Hanbin, a senior police officer who was convicted of accepting 256,000 yuan from Wang and four other gang bosses.

Local residents said the "atrocious gangsters" deserve severe punishments.

"After today's verdict, I really expect Wednesday's sentence for Wen to be harsh," said a local 28-year-old freelancer Ma Beibei.

"It's just like watching the movie Infernal Affairs, with criminals in cops' uniforms finally getting what they deserve," she said.

Wen's lawyer, Yang Kuangsheng, told reporters that officials from the No 5 Intermediate People's Court in Chongqing informed him that Wen's verdict would be announced on Wednesday, almost eight months after the former justice chief was detained.

Wen, 55, who had served as deputy director of the Chongqing municipal public security bureau for 11 years before becoming director of the city's justice bureau, has been accused of rape, cover-ups and conniving with six mafia-style gangs.

He has also been accused of taking bribes of 15.46 million yuan and possessing 10.62 million yuan of unexplained assets.

Though acknowledging he accepted money from Wang and visited Wang's Haocheng club, Wen in court had denied protecting gangs or creating obstacles for any police investigation.

He said that since some of his peers had previously abused their power while investigating entertainment venues, an investigation should not take place unless a member of the public had first raised an alarm to police.