Three former officials prosecuted on bribery charges

Three former vice-ministerial level officials have been prosecuted for alleged graft issues, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Monday.

Wei Minzhou, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress; Liu Shanqiao, former vice-chairman of the Hubei Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chen Xu, former chief prosecutor of Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate, have been charged with bribery.

Wei, 62, has been charged with accepting bribes by the Chenzhou City People's Procuratorate in Central China's Hunan province. The procuratorate has prosecuted him to Chenzhou City Intermediate People's Court. A court hearing will be held at a later date.

According to the indictment, Wei took advantage of his position to gain benefits for others and accepted huge bribes, either paid in cash or in other properties.

Between 2007 to May 2017, Wei mainly served as secretary-general of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee; Party chief in Xi’an city, capital city in Northwest China's Shaanxi province; and former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress.

In May 2017, the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) launched an investigation on whether he committed serious violations of Party disciplines.

In August 2017, Wei was dismissed from his public position and expelled from the Party. His criminal case was sent to the prosecuting department for investigation.

Liu, 62, former vice-chairman of the Hubei Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was accused of bribery by the Nanyang City People's Procuratorate in Central China's Henan province. The Nanyang City People's Procuratorate prosecuted the case in the Nanyang city Intermediate People's Court.

The prosecutors charged that Liu abused power that benefited other enterprises or individuals, then accepted a large amount in bribes in return.

In June 2017, Liu was placed under investigation by the CCDI for serious violations of Party discplines.

In September, he was expelled from the Party and removed from his administrative post.

In a separate development, Chen, former chief prosecutor of the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate was charged with accepting bribes by the Nanning city People's Procuratorate.

According to the indictment, when he was serving as the deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and chief prosecutor of the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate, he took advantage of his job position to gain benefits for others and used his political influence to help other officials to benefit others, then took huge bribes.

The SPP said the prosecuting departments notified the suspects' of their legal rights and listened carefully to their lawyers' defense statements to protect their human rights.