Former Guizhou Party chief tried for bribery
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-16 16:18

Liu Fangren, former secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was tried in Beijing Tuesday on charges of taking bribes, sources from the Chinese Supreme People's Court said.

Liu Fangren was tried in a Beijing court for taking bribes. [file]

Tuesday's trial was open to the public and Liu and his defending lawyer all appeared in court, noted the sources, adding that the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court would give its verdict "on a selected date."

Liu, 68, was the Party chief of southwestern Guizhou Province from 1993 to 2001 and appointed as vice-chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the 9th National People's Congress in April 2002. He was expelled from the CPC and turned over the judicial authorities last April.

Liu's former colleague Liu Changgui, former vice-governor of Guizhou Province, was also on the corruption trial from March this year. Lu Wanli, former director of Guizhou provincial transportation department, was sentenced to death on May 11 after being convicted of taking bribes.

As one of China's most impoverished provinces, Guizhou, located in southwest China, has a population of some 38 million people.

In 2003, 12 provincial or ministry-level Chinese officials were penalized, including former Party secretaries of Hebei and Guizhou provinces, Cheng Weigao and Liu Fangren, former Yunnan Governor Li Jiating, former Anhui vice-governor Wang Huaizhong, and former Minister of Land and Natural Resources Tian Fengshan.

Wang Huaizhong was executed after being convicted of corruption in February this year. Wang Xuebing, former president of China Construction Bank, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment last year on a charge of accepting bribes.

In February of 2004, Zhang Guoguang, former governor of central China's Hubei province, was expelled from the CPC and turned over to the judicial authorities on charges of taking bribes. Zhang was ever the governor of northeastern China's Liaoning province.

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