ZHANG QIWEN, former director of the Shenzhen Municipal Water Resources Bureau, stood trial Thursday at Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court on charges of taking bribes valued at nearly 30 million yuan (US$4.56 million), including 19.68 million yuan, HK$7.1 million (US$907,380) and US$300,000.

Zhang also couldn’t explain the source of his assets totaling 27.78 million yuan.

According to prosecutors, Zhang abused power between 2009 and 2015 when he worked as director of the Shenzhen Municipal Water Resources Bureau and took bribes by helping others to get contracts of water-related facilities and official car maintenance businesses.

At the first court hearing in September, prosecutors filed seven counts of bribery and later added one more count at the second hearing Thursday.

During Thursday’s hearing, Zhang’s lawyer presented a court receipt showing Zhang’s wife had given back 12 million yuan in bribery fund and asked for leniency from the court as Zhang had confessed some crimes before other suspects were caught.

The prosecutors suggested a jail term of between 11 and 14 years for Zhang’s crime that involved a large amount of money.

In another development, a former deputy chief of Investment Shenzhen, Li Shi, has been expelled from the Party for serious discipline violations, according to a public notice released on the official website of the Disciplinary Inspection Commission of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPC.

An investigation showed that Li took huge amounts of money in bribes when he served as a department director at the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission and deputy chief of Investment Shenzhen. To cover up his crimes, Li adopted a method of abusing power on duty and taking bribes after leaving the post in 2014.

(Han Ximin)