Beijing ex-vice mayor crime investigated_时事politics

beijing, dec.13 - china's communist party expelled a disgraced former vice mayor of beijing and will launch criminal proceedings against him after he was found to have taken millions of yuan in bribes, state media reported.

 

liu zhihua had been in charge of building venues for the chinese capital's 2008 olympics, as well as the $40 billion upgrade of the city's infrastructure for the games. he was sacked in june, accused of corruption and bad morals.

 

on tuesday, the communist party's central discipline inspection commission, which seeks to root out erring officials, announced liu's expulsion from the ruling party, the official xinhua news agency reported.

 

"as a senior cadre, liu completely ignored the party spirit and caused a vile social and political impact and major economic losses through his wrongdoing, which must be seriously punished," the commission declared, according to xinhua.

 

investigators found liu abused his powerful position in china's most powerful city to take bribes of "several million yuan" -- equal to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

 

he will face "criminal proceedings", xinhua also reported, a step that may expose the grimy underside of business and politics in the booming capital.

 

"the investigation also found that liu led a dissolute life and helped his mistress to seek profit," xinhua reported, without offering details.

 

last week, wu jingjun, chief engineer of olympic venue construction, said that jin yan, liu's one-time deputy, was "helping" with the investigation into his former boss.