Wen Qiang, the former deputy chief of the police authority in Chongqing, appealed against his conviction of protecting gangs, bribery, rape and property scamming on Thursday during his second trial and asked for a lenient sentence.

Wen Qiang on second trial.

Wen received the death penalty for committing the crimes after his first trial in April - a milestone wrapping up Chongqing's anti-gang campaign that convicted 383 mafia-style gangsters and netted dozens of fallen police officers who protected the organizations.

The second trial is expected to last two to three days in the Chongqing People's Higher Court.

Local residents are discussing if Wen, 54, who protected five organized gangs for more than a decade, will avoid the early death sentence.

The exposure of a part of the diary of the judge who presided over Wen's first trial sparked renewed debate over the case.

The diary reportedly stated that the related panel of judges disputed over the first trial's ruling.

"The amount of bribes Wen accepted is not the largest among similar crimes convicted across the country in recent years", Wang Lixin, the judge from the Chongqing No 5 Intermediate People's Court, wrote in his diary.

The diary was published on Chinacourt.org, the website affiliated to the country's top court.

The court in the first instance said Wen accepted or accepted through his wife 12.11 million yuan ($1.77 million) from 20 organizations or individuals when he was in power from 1996 to 2009.