Former Xinjiang police chief arrested in bribery investigation, say Chinese prosecutors
- Ex-police chief Jureti Ibrahim and agriculture official Aikebaier Wufur, both ethnic Uygurs, have been taken into custody
- Wufur, 61, was reported to have been placed under investigation for ‘serious disciplinary violations’ in August
Two former officials from China’s restive Xinjiang region have been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, the country’s top prosecution body has announced.
Jureti Ibrahim, formerly deputy director of the police in Urumqi, the far-western region’s capital, was taken into custody following an investigation by the city’s supervisory committee, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on its website on Tuesday.
Ibrahim, an ethnic Uygur and Communist Party member, was reported in local media in 2014 to have attended a local police symposium, where he said police needed to “firmly stand on the frontline for anti-terrorism and stability” and to “resolutely make no compromise to terrorists and separatists, and show to leniency or mercy in resolute suppression.”
The prosecutors also said that Aikebaier Wufur, who headed the region’s agriculture department for almost four years before stepping down in January 2017, was arrested on the instructions of the prosecutor’s office in Urumqi following an investigation by the Xinjiang supervisory committee.
According to his résumé, Wufur was born in Xinjiang’s Aksu prefecture and joined the party in 1987. During his career he held various government positions before taking over as head of the agriculture department in March 2013.