China has not started legal proceedings against former Chinese head of domestic security Zhou Yongkang (周永康), the highest-profile figure to be caught in a government crackdown on corruption, a senior court official said yesterday.
Jiang Bixin (江必新), the deputy head of the Supreme People’s Court, China’s highest court, said any case against Zhou would be handled by the courts in compliance with the law once it was lodged.
He was responding to a journalist’s question about Zhou’s fate at a news conference in Beijing that was broadcast live on the Web site of the state-run China News service.
One of the most influential Chinese politicians of the last decade, Zhou is being investigated for corruption in China’s biggest graft scandal since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in 1949. He was last seen in public more than a year ago.
There had been speculation authorities would provide a public update about the case against Zhou last month at a meeting of members of the CCP elite to discuss legal reforms in the world’s second-largest economy.
However, officials did not raise Zhou’s case.
“If the prosecuting organs lodged their suit, the Supreme People’s Court will handle it in accordance with the legally set process,” Jiang said.
“On this point there should be no doubt,” he added.
Zhou’s case is a landmark in China’s fight against corruption as it showed Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was serious about stamping out graft and willing to go after members of the elite such as Zhou, who had served on the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee, which is at the apex of state power.
A senior CCP official this week said that Zhou’s case was not discussed at last month’s party meeting because he was no longer part of the central leadership.
Corruption investigations into China’s leaders are often conducted first by the CCP’s anti-graft watchdog, before the cases are recommended to legal authorities.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS