PLA corruption case set for trial

An investigation into alleged graft by the former director of the PLA's Intelligence Department is finished and has been submitted to prosecutors by the Central Military Commission's chairman, President Jiang Zemin.

In addition to the court martial Major-General Ji Shengde is facing, he will be tried for embezzling public funds, taking bribes and dereliction of duty.

According to a report by the Economic Information Daily, Ji illegally acquired more than 100 million yuan (HK$93 million). This included 20 million yuan privately embezzled through stock speculation on a PLA-owned company, money accumulated through 'unfair means' in Hong Kong and abroad, and accepting 30 million yuan in bribes from Lai Changxing, who headed the Xiamen Yuanhua smuggling and bribery operation.

In the Xiamen case, about 50 billion yuan was smuggled by corrupt officials including Ji. The case was so serious that two officials received death sentences, and Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-President Hu Jintao and Central Discipline Inspection Commission secretary Wei Jianxing have been handling the case.

Despite the severity of Ji's alleged crimes, the newspaper reported he was not expected to face the death penalty, both because his father, Ji Pengfei, was a party elder and his mother is still alive. Public speculation that Ji Shengde was in trouble started in late February, after he failed to appear at his father's official state funeral.

The case against Ji is so serious that the report said Mr Jiang had pulled the Military Discipline Inspection Commission out of what had been its joint investigation with the Central Discipline Investigation Commission, when he was not satisfied with the former's progress in the case.