Anna s children demand that the plea bargain be voided and he be judged without leniency.

The judge's ruling spurred rumors that he went easy on her because her husband was related to senior provincial officials.

A few years ago, in Beijing, he ran one of China's most popular TV shows, each week testing the limits of the authorities' indulgence.

Countries with provisions dealing with any form of cartelization should consider introducing leniency programmes as part of their regulations, while those in the process of drafting competition laws may consider developing a programme with initial implementation regulations.

The difficulty with implementing this policy has been that its preventive aspects social support and reintegration of delinquents appear to the frightened population living in the affected areas as being soft on crime and overly generous.