Society

Ex-official recants bribery confession

By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-22 16:00

A former Party chief of Mingguang city in Anhui province denied in court on April 13 his earlier oral confession and said he never accepted bribes, after being charged with taking more than 4.35 million yuan ($637,000) in 423 bribes from 1997 to 2008, the Legal Weekend reported Wednesday.

Zhang Jiansong, Party secretary of Mingguang before he was toppled in 2008, said in court he made up taking more than 400 bribes because he was under pressure, and that the 361 witnesses provided by the procuratorate were all fake.

The newspaper said Zhang didn't dare take any bribes when he first came into a powerful position. A college graduate once brought him a basket of eggs and two chickens to thank him for giving him a job, but Zhang didn't dare accept it, the newspaper said.

Zhang refused to take bribes at first but gradually began by taking small amounts. After becoming Party secretary of Mingguang city, the sum of bribes he took became bigger and bigger, and he even started asking for them, according to the newspaper.

He took 180,000 yuan in bribes between 1997 and 2003, and after 2003, when he became the Party secretary, he took more than 4.17 million yuan.

Zhang didn't plan to confess at the beginning, but he felt guilty and thought the government might go easy on him if he confessed. But when he saw his case enter court proceedings after his confession, he knew his wishes couldn't be realized and decided to withdraw his testimony.