China puts 6 provincial-level officials into prison in 2005

In the fight against corruption and other job-related crimes, Chinese courts convicted six provincial and ministerial officials to prison in 2005, the same as in 2004, while much more lower level officials were given criminal penalty, chief justice Xiao Yang said Saturday in Beijing.

Courts across the country heard 24,277 cases of embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty in 2005, and sentenced 1,932 officials above the county level to prison, said Xiao, president of the Supreme People's Court, in his report to the annual session of the Tenth National People's Congress.

"Of the convicted, six were provincial or ministerial officials, 178 were prefecture level officials," he said.

The most notorious convicted provincial or ministerial level officials were Tian Fengshan, former minister of land and resources who were sentenced to life imprisonment, and Han Guizhi, former chairman of Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who was given death penalty with a two-year reprieve.

Observers said while the number of convicted provincial level officials in 2005 remained the same as in 2004, the number of guilty county level official rose from 458 to 1,748 and prefecture level official from 73 to 178.

JOB-RELATED CRIMES RAMPANT

In a separate report to the Parliament Saturday, top prosecutor Jia Chunwang said procuratorial bodies across China have focused the investigation of job-related crimes on high-level officials, " profitable" government sections, monopoly industries and state- owned companies.

"Job-related crimes have been rampant in some industries and government sections over the past years, but the amount of money has risen, crimes are committed more cunningly and more officials are absconding with large sums of public fund," said Jia, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Chinese prosecutors investigated 2,799 government officials above the county level, including 196 at prefecture level and eight at provincial and ministerial level in 2005. In addition, 9, 117 executives of state-owned companies were probed for misappropriating or embezzling company assets.

In 2005, 703 government officials at large who were suspected of job-related crimes were seized, 14.5 percent more than the previous year; 7.4 billion yuan of illicit money was confiscated, 62.9 percent more than 2004, statistics show.

A total of 41,449 government employees were probed by prosecutors in 2005 for corruption and dereliction of duty, of which 30,205 were brought to court, statistics show.

LAWMAKERS "GENERALLY SATISFIED"

During interviews with Xinhua, most lawmakers expressed " general satisfaction" with the work reports by Xiao and Jia, while many also said more work is needed to be done to quicken the steps of judicial reform.

"Courts and procuratorates have been working hard to improve law-enforcement, strengthen crackdown upon various crimes and perform their duty for social justice," said NPC deputy Li Yongxi, Party chief of Baoli County of Hainan Province.

However, judicial bodies had drawn more criticism in previous annual sessions for inability and corruptive images among the public.

Judges were even accused of "preying on both the defendant and the plaintiff" for bribery, just as described by a popular saying that "After feasting with the plaintiff, judges turn to the defendant's banquet."

As a result, top judge and top prosecutor had been winning much lower approval rates for their work reports than other bills at the NPC annual session.

"As far as I know, thanks to more rigorous management mechanisms, courts and prosecution offices are working well to win back people's confidence by doing less harm and more good to the people," Li said.

Supervisory efforts by people's congress deputies and the press have also played a role in improving the judicial work, said Sun Guihua, an NPC deputy and head of the anti-corruption bureau of Harbin Municipal Procuratorate in Heilongjiang Province.

FURTHER ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE

As a show of determination to weed out corruption, both Xiao and Jia pledged to prosecute and mete out due punishment against government officials engaged in embezzlement and dereliction of duty according to law in their new year plans.

Jia said prosecutors shall focus on government employees who abuse their "power of personnel arrangement, law enforcement and administrative permit" for profit, executives of state-owned companies who steal company assets, as well as officials who violated people's rights and interests.

Procuratorial bodies, authorized by the law to supervise all legal procedures, will also rigorously push for the clean-up of judicial bodies, for social and judicial justice, Jia said.

Source: Xinhua