A court in Tianjin has released details of the trial of former Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu, the subject of one of the mainland's highest- profile corruption scandals in a decade, state media reported yesterday.
Chen, 62, was jailed last April for 18 years after the Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court found him guilty of taking more than 2.39 million yuan (HK$2.72 million) in bribes and abuse of power. He was also stripped of 300,000 yuan in assets.
Chen was also found to have allowed more than 1 billion yuan to have been siphoned from social security funds to be lent to companies.
The Tianjin High Court released details of how it handled the case to the media on Friday during a press conference about its work over the past 12 months, Xinhua reported.
Court spokesman Fan Chunming said the case had been placed under the direct control of the Tianjin municipal government's legal commission because of the high level of public and media scrutiny, Xinhua said.
It said a special working group had been set up to identify potential problems that could have occurred during the trial and to ensure it was carried out in an 'objective and fair manner' that would 'fully embody the objectivity of the law'.