The trial of the former vice-minister of public security, Li Jizhou, began in Beijing yesterday as Fujian courts handed down three more death sentences to smugglers involved in the Xiamen Yuanhua smuggling scandal, the nation's largest graft case.
Li, also the former deputy head of the nation's anti-smuggling taskforce, is the most senior official to go on trial for alleged involvement in the smuggling of cars, oil, cigarettes and other goods worth US$6.4 billion (HK$49.7 billion), costing the treasury US$3.6 billion in lost duties.
Li went on trial in Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court accused of taking 'huge bribes' from Lai Changxing, whom China claims led the smuggling scheme, and of using his power to block probes into it, Xinhua said.
The smuggling ring's influence was said to have reached high into the ranks of the Government and Communist Party, which also expelled Li from its ranks, Xinhua said.
Li's trial is believed to have been delayed from late last year pending the resolution of attempts to extradite Lai, who is in detention in Canada on immigration charges and is fighting extradition attempts by the Chinese Government.
In Fujian, the coastal province at the centre of the scandal, courts in five cities also sentenced three people to death. Another defendant who surrendered was given a suspended death sentence. Another six people were sentenced to life imprisonment in the second batch of trials, Xinhua said.