Government and Policy
Ex-official on trial for corruption
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-27 07:05
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ZHENGZHOU - Zhu Zhigang, China's former deputy finance minister, stood trial on corruption charges in Xinyang of Central China's Henan province on Monday.
Zhu was one of China's 12 high-ranking officials removed from their provincial or ministerial level posts in the past two years after being investigated for corruption.
Prosecutors alleged Zhu helped others to secure profits, as well as to obtain loans and public appointments by taking advantage of his posts as assistant finance minister and deputy finance minister from January 2000 to March 2008.
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Zhu Zhigang was removed from his post. |
No ruling was issued on Monday at the Xinyang Intermediate People's Court, where the hearing was open to the public and the media.
According to earlier reports by Caijing Magazine, one of China's leading financial and business magazines, Zhu was placed under investigation after his relatives were discovered buying property at an extremely low price when he was assistant finance minister and deputy finance minister from January 2000 to March 2008.
He was taken away for investigation in October 2008 and was stripped of his membership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) last June for "severe violation of disciplines and the law".
Born in May 1950 in Beijing, Zhu had worked as deputy director of Daxing county finance and tax bureau, deputy head of Daxing county government and deputy chief of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
He was assistant finance minister and vice-minister of finance since 1998 before being appointed in March 2008 as former director of the Budgetary Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, and vice-chairman of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.
According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, four officials at provincial or ministerial level were at the center of corruption investigations in 2008 and eight in 2009.
Among them are Huang Songyou, former vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, and Wang Yi, former vice-president of the State-run China Development Bank.
Wang Yi was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on April 15 for accepting nearly 12 million yuan ($1.8 million) in bribes.
Huang Songyou, the former vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, was sentenced to life in jail in March for taking more than 3.9 million yuan ($574,000) in bribes between 2005 and 2008.
In total, 2,670 officials above county level were investigated last year for embezzlement, bribery, dereliction of duty and other work-related crimes.
China Daily - Xinhua
(China Daily 04/27/2010 page4)
