Chinese prosecutors to be punished if corruption suspects kill themselves

Chinese prosecutors will be punished if officials they are investigating for abuse of office commit suicide, the authorities said, after several suspects caught up in an anti-corruption drive killed themselves.

Under President Xi Jinping, a much-publicised anti-graft campaign has ensnared a long list of senior and junior officials. Some have committed suicide, escaping possible criminal proceedings and seizure of ill-gotten gains, to the benefit of their families.

In the latest example, the head of a multi-billion-dollar state-owned Chinese heavy machinery manufacturer, Wu Fusheng, was found hanging in his office as anti-corruption investigators probed his firm.

Respected business news outlet Caixin said in January that at least 50 party and government officials have been publicly declared to have died of “unnatural causes” since 2012.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued eight orders restricting how probes into acts of abuse in office, which often involve bribery or other forms of corruption, should be carried out.

Investigators will be suspended and “dealt with according to discipline and the law” if the subjects of their inquiries escape, are injured, or commit suicide because of their “unlawful” or “severely irresponsible” acts, it said in a statement on its website.