Police officer fled overseas after pocketing millions
Mainland authorities might seek British assistance in extraditing a suspect in a Hunan passport scam in which police are alleged to have sold hundreds of passports to people-smugglers in the past year, state media reported.
The scam, which hit the headlines after the mysterious death of another main suspect this month, has triggered public anger over rampant police corruption.
Yueyang Public Security Bureau, where the late Zhang Lizhi worked as deputy head of the entry-exit administration department, has been asked not to get involved in the investigation, the Beijing News reported yesterday.
Zhang was found dead on December 9 after 'accidentally' falling from a two-storey building where she was detained, Xinhua said. The official report ran counter to an investigation by Yueyang authorities, which insisted Zhang killed herself to escape punishment.
Liu Xiangjian , Zhang's department boss, fled to Britain in October with an undisclosed amount of money, rumoured to be millions of yuan.
'His escape was carefully planned, as his wife and child had been abroad for years,' one of Liu's colleagues was quoted as saying.