Society

Latest Maoming bribe trial under way

By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-22 07:36

GUANGZHOU - A former executive vice-mayor of Maoming, Guangdong province, stood trial on Tuesday for allegedly taking bribes and using his official power for huge illegal gains.

Yang Guangliang, 57, was charged with taking bribes worth more than 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) and gaining unidentified property worth 41 million yuan between 1992 and 2009, according to the Guangzhou procuratorate authority.

Moreover, Yang was alleged to have earned more than 75 million yuan by violating rules, sources with the local procuratorate said.

At the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday, Yang confessed to his crimes but did not agree to the amount of the bribes.

For example, Yang said in court that he did not receive money from a general manager of a local chemical company between 2007 and 2009.

Sources with the procuratorate said Yang allegedly took bribes of 7 million yuan from the general manager in a separate land leasing case related to the chemical company.

"I received the loan receipt from the general manager," Yang said. "But so far I have not received the money from him."

Prosecutors also alleged Yang bought 14 apartments in Dianbai county of Maoming, Guangzhou and Zhuhai and had several mistresses, according to the local Yangcheng Evening News.

He even reportedly called two mistresses to Beijing when he was studying at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2000.

Yang was called to a work meeting in Guangzhou in mid-October 2009, and has been held in the Guangdong provincial capital city for investigation ever since, local media reported.

Yang also reportedly bribed Chen Shaoji, former chairman of the Guangdong committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) with a payment of 50 million yuan.

Chen has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes in July 2010.

Some 20 deputies of the local people's congress and members of the local CPPCC committee attended the two-day trial.

Yang was one of several high-ranking corrupt officials in Maoming, who have been detained in the last two years, to stand trial for a series of related acts of corruption.

Top officials in Maoming, including the former Party chief Luo Yinguo, former vice-mayor Chen Yachun and Ni Junxiong, former director of Maoming Public Security Bureau, have been under investigation for serious disciplinary violations, creating a huge upheaval in officialdom in Maoming.

As well, senior officials connected with prison management in Maoming were dismissed or arrested for alleged serious violations in August 2009. They were suspected of turning a blind eye to prisoners taking drugs and commuting a sentence in exchange for money.

In a related case, Yang Qiang, former director of the city's Maogang district police bureau, was sentenced to life imprisonment in January for accepting more than 5 million yuan in bribes and obtaining nearly 10 million yuan worth of unidentified properties.

More than 30 officials in the city have been allegedly involved in Yang Guangliang and Yang Qiang's cases.

Yang Qiang was also found to have provided long-term protection for a local criminal gang led by Li Zhengang, who stood trial in May.