Former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu was dismissed from the
national and local legislatures on Tuesday, potentially clearing
the way for formal legal proceedings against him.
Chen was stripped of his post as a deputy to the 10th National
People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, on Tuesday,
the website of Caijing magazine reported.
Two officials from the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress
reached by China Daily confirmed that Chen had been removed, but
refused to comment.
The decision was made on Tuesday at the 37th meeting of the 12th
Shanghai Municipal People's Congress. It will be submitted for the
records to the NPC's Standing Committee, which is expected to make
an announcement soon.
On the same day, the People's Congress of the city's Huangpu
District, Chen's original constituency, revoked Chen's position as
deputy to the 12th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress. Reasons
cited included serious violations of the law and regulations.
According to the NPC Organization Law, unless the NPC Standing
Committee or Presidium grants its consent, an NPC deputy cannot be
arrested or face criminal sentencing.
Sources at the Shanghai People's Procuratorate told China
Daily yesterday that Tuesday's decision would pave the way for
Chen's case to enter the legal proceedings phase, after nearly a
year of investigation.
Chen, 60, was sacked as Shanghai Party chief last September on
corruption charges, particularly in connection with the misuse of a
huge amount of funds from the Shanghai social security fund. While
his position as a member of the Party Central Committee and the
Politburo was suspended at that time, he still retained his Party
membership as well as his post as an NPC deputy.
But at the NPC session in March this year, Chen was not elected
to the NPC Presidium, as he was in the past. He also did not
participate in the meeting.
NPC spokesman Jiang Enzhu said at that time that a decision
about Chen's status as a deputy would be made after an
investigation.
Zhu Junyi, former head of the Shanghai municipal labor and
social security bureau, and another senior local official involved
in the social security fund scandal, dropped his status as an NPC
deputy last August.
Just a month ago, Wang Guoxiong, former president of the
Shanghai Industrial Investment Co Ltd, who was also involved in the
scandal, appeared at the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court
on bribery charges.
Several other officials and businessmen implicated in the case
have also had charges brought against them by the prosecutor's
offices in Shanghai, Jilin and Anhui provinces.
A total of 3.45 billion yuan (US$454 million) of the social
security fund was misused between 2002 and 2005, Shanghai Mayor Han
Zheng told a local congress meeting earlier this year.
Dozens of local officials joined a powerful central government
team last September to investigate the case.
(China Daily July 26, 2007)