Corruption in China: ex-judges and prosecutors caught breaking rules on conflicts of interest
- The latest phase of a crackdown targeting the judicial system found around a third of those who returned to practise law were exploiting their connections
- Some of the lawyers were found to be acting as ‘brokers’ offering bribes to current judges to sway court cases
The campaign was part of a wider drive to clean up the judicial system, which the authorities say is jeopardising public trust in government and “threatening state security”.
The latest blitz, carried out between February and June, specifically targeted lawyers who had been prosecutors and judges at the city and county level and who had continued to practise after leaving those roles.
A press conference held by the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the country’s top law enforcement agency, last week, was told that 7,640 former judges and prosecutors who have left their posts since 2012 have continued to practise law.
Of these, some 2,044 – or nearly 30 per cent – had violated the rules that ban them from working on cases related to their former roles, with 101 acting as “judicial brokers” – a term applied to those who use their connections to help people bribe judges.
Those found breaking the rules in this way face a range of sanctions, including suspension and prosecution, but it is not known what action has been taken in these cases.