What’s new: Shanghai’s former top prosecutor has pleaded guilty to taking more than 48 million yuan ($6.6 million) in bribes, as China’s anti-corruption crackdown on law enforcement and the judiciary continues.
On Thursday, Zhang Bencai stood trial at Xiamen Intermediate People’s Court in East China’s Fujian province on bribery charges.
Prosecutors said Zhang accepted kickbacks in exchange for business and job-related favors while in multiple positions from 2005 to 2020, including head of the General Office of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) and chief procurator of Shanghai People’s Procuratorate, according to a statement from the Xiamen court.
The court did not announce a verdict for the 56-year-old.
The background: China’s top graft buster said in June 2022 that it had begun investigating Zhang, more than six years after he became Shanghai’s top prosecutor. Around four months later, he was expelled from the Communist Party and removed from public office.
Zhang holds a master’s degree in criminal law from Jilin University. He spent most of his 30-year career at the SPP, the country’s highest prosecutorial body. In 2016, he moved to Shanghai to take the role that made him the youngest provincial prosecutor at the time. Zhang is the second chief prosecutor from Shanghai to be investigated after his predecessor, Chen Xu, who was sentenced to life in prison for bribery in 2018.
Zhang is the latest in a string of fallen senior officials to face trial this year, with some handed lengthy prison terms including life behind bars for bribery and other offenses.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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