Top officials join start of trial of 'mafia' tycoon Liu Han
Major security operation marks start of case against mining boss Liu Han, the alleged crime gang member accused of murder and financial offences
More than 150 senior Communist Party officials arrived in Xianning, Hubei province, yesterday to oversee the highly anticipated trial of Sichuan mining tycoon Liu Han for alleged mafia-style crimes.
It is the first public trial of a person connected to the wider corruption investigation of Zhou Yongkang, the retired domestic security tsar.
The party leadership also said that charges of embezzlement, bribery, misuse of state funds and abuse of power had been filed in the long-awaited case of Gu Junshan, the army's former deputy logistics head. He is a close ally of Xu Caihou, former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.
The timing of the announcement was meant to demonstrate the leadership's resolve to catch further corrupt senior officials, observers said.
The officials in Xianning included the vice-president of the country's top court, Li Shaoping, deputy chief prosecutor Zhu Xiaoqing and other security and propaganda officials from Beijing, Sichuan, Hubei and Guangdong. Streets were cleared around Xianning Intermediate People's Court hours before a fleet of police vehicles arrived escorting several minivans at about 8am.