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Overseas tour for research: Court

By Liang Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-12 08:27

GUANGZHOU: A court in Guangzhou has defended six of its officials accused of misusing public funds to pay for an overseas tour, saying the trip was for "inspection and research".

"The tour was approved by the Guangdong provincial foreign affairs office and the expenditure is within the budget," the Guangzhou Maritime Court said in a statement late Wednesday.

The officials, who included chief justice Luo Guohua, had only "stopped by some places of interest" after finishing their duties, it said.

The statement caused public uproar yesterday as netizens questioned the 487,105-yuan ($71,000) bill for the tour, which included stops in South Africa, Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates from Jan 7 to 18.

The court confirmed the average expenditure per person during the trip was more than 80,000 yuan, but local travel agencies said they charge just 20,000 yuan per person for a similar trip, including transport, food and accommodation.

The court was looking into the details of the cost, a court official named Chen Dan said yesterday.

News of the tour broke on June 2 when a netizen posted on tianya.com, an online forum, a letter from the court to the provincial authority asking for approval to send six officials "to exchange ideas on how to deal with rising judicial maritime issues" along the province's coast.

The letter had been stolen from the court's internal system, Chen said.

Luo Junjie, a lawyer in Guangzhou, said: "These officials should not only be fired, but should be charged."