One of China’s most senior Uygur officials to face trial on corruption charges
- Nur Bekri is accused of taking bribes and abusing his power and has already been expelled from the Communist Party
One of China’s most senior ethnic Uygur officials will go on trial on corruption charges, official media reported on Tuesday.
The investigation into Nur Bekri, a former chairman of Xinjiang region and head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), has been completed and prosecutors have decided that his case will soon be heard at Shenyang Intermediate People’s Court in the northeastern province of Liaoning, official news agency Xinhua reported.
Bekri, 58, was sacked from his posts last year and has since been expelled from the Communist Party.
Before he was named deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and head of the NEA in 2014, Bekri had served as mayor of Urumqi and government chairman in the far western region.
He was seen as a rising ethnic minority political star when he was promoted to the central government five years ago.
The Xinhua report said Bekri’s alleged crimes spanned two decades, starting from the days when he was one of the deputy party secretaries of Urumqi in 1998.