Investigators: Claims by court official are untrue

A central-level joint investigative group looking into a high-profile case in which a top court officer claimed he experienced retaliation from his colleagues and that corruption exists in the country's Supreme People's Court concluded on Friday that the allegations were untrue.

Wang Linqing, an officer of the top court, had developed personal resentments during his work at the SPC, so he stole some documents related to a case he handled and fabricated a story that the documents had vanished mysteriously, the investigation concluded.

Wang also photographed some internal instructions from senior court officials in the case, it found, and sent the photos to one of the litigants. The photos were later released online with the help of a well-known former news anchor, Cui Yongyuan.

Cui, who posted the photos on his social media account at the end of last year, also helped Wang shoot and release a video in which Wang claimed he received unfair treatment at the court because he insisted on justice and told the story of the "mysteriously missing" court documents, investigators found. Cui's account has about 20 million followers.

The video and photographs of documents sparked wide public concern about possible judicial corruption and dragged the top court into the spotlight.

To make a thorough probe, multiple central-level anti-corruption and law enforcement watchdogs, led by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, formed a joint investigation group in early January.

After a few weeks of detailed questioning of all people involved and examinations of more than 100 copies of court files, the group concluded that Wang's accusations were false.

Verdicts of the top court in two lawsuits mentioned by Wang－one involving a coal mine ownership dispute in Shaanxi province and assets valued at 380 billion yuan ($56.5 billion); and the other involving a contract dispute in Shanxi province－were proper, investigators found.

The internal instructions from senior court officials in the Shaanxi case were in line with laws and regulations, as superior judges should intensify their supervision over such "significant and complicated" lawsuits as required, the group found.

However, the SPC had some flaws, it found. For example, the judges who handled the Shanxi case failed to correctly calculate the profit of a litigant. The top court was also found to have irregularities in its internal management and has failed to proper manage some internal information, investigators found.

They also found that a former official in the top court's supervisory bureau, Yan Changlin, had illegally interfered in the Shanxi case, though the effort failed.

The joint investigation group has ordered the SPC to rectify its problems seriously and thoroughly. Yan was placed under investigation for graft, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on Friday.

As for Wang, who said that the top court had unfairly barred him from getting higher titles and would not elevate him to be a judge－a title that requires credentials and competition－investigators said the rebuffs were due to his faking of birth information in personnel files and his failure to apply as required.

Police have opened a probe into Wang's obtaining and deliberately disclosing State secrets. It was not clear whether or not Cui Yongyuan, the former news anchor who facilitated Wang in making internal information public, would be probed.