Former provincial secretary probed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 20, 2004

Former provincial secretary probed

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The Former Party Secretary of Guizhou Province, Liu Fangren, is now under investigations by the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate, said prosecutor general Xu Haifeng in a report to the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress Thursday.

The report was one of several presented to top legislators Thursday.

Liu is suspected of having received bribes of at least 1.6 million yuan (US$190,000) and US$19,900 from local entrepreneurs between 1996-2003.

Xu did not give any more details on the case, which was assigned to his department by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate is well-known for handling notorious corruption cases, including the prosecution of the former president of the China Construction Bank Wang Xuebing; the former governor of Yunnan Province Li Jiating; and the former president of the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court Mai Chongkai.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate sometimes transfer jurisdiction of corruption investigations to avoid conflicts of interest and confessions given in collusion, sources said.

In his report Thursday, Xu announced that the procuratorate handled 335 corruption cases last year, including 79 cases involving more than 1 million yuan (US$121,000) each.

A total of 386 suspects were investigated, including 20 officials above the bureau level. Nine were officials working for judicial departments, said Xu.

Economic losses of 290 million yuan (US$35 million) were recouped through the procuratorate's efforts, said sources.

Besides Xu, the president of the Beijing High People's Court Qin Zheng'an and the director of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress Yu Junbo, also gave their reports to the city's top legislators for approval.

Local courts at various levels in Beijing have concluded 861 intellectual property rights lawsuits last year, rising 27.6 per cent from the figure of 2002, according to Qin Zheng'an.

"Lawsuits involving software copyright, domain names and database have increased by a large number in Beijing after China's entry to the World Trade Organization in December of 2001," Qin said.

Meanwhile, a total of 335 related overseas cases were concluded last year, according to the president, who did not compare the figure with the previous year.

In accordance with the real estate industry boom in the capital city, real estate-related lawsuits increased by 39.6 per cent last year, reaching 3,948.

In another development, the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the city's top legislative body drafted seven local regulations last year, revised four and abolished two.

A five-year legislation layout was passed last year and 54 legislative items will be completed during the coming five years.

The layout has adopted 36 recommendations from the public, according to Yu Junbo.

Yu also said that 12 legislative items will be included in this year's agenda of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.

They include the regulation on historic and cultural relics protection, traffic management regulation and animal quarantine regulation.

Two regulations will be revised this year. They are the tourism management and cultural relics protection regulations.

It was known Thursday that 46 per cent of the 1,373 recommendations put forward by congress deputies during the first session of the 12th Beijing Municipal People's Congress held last year, have been adopted by governmental departments in the past year.

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