CHINA> Regional
Official sacked for misusing police escort
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-27 11:45

TAIYUAN -- The top disciplinary official in a public security bureau in north China has been sacked for arranging a police motorcade for his mother's funeral cortege, local anti-graft watchdog officials said Friday.

Zhao Mingwen, secretary of the commission for discipline inspection at the Jinzhong Municipal Public Security Bureau, was also given a "serious warning" from the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Li Rongsheng, a traffic police officer in Yuanping city, was given a "serious warning" for offering the police escort. Officials with such penalties have fewer chances of promotion.

The Yuanping Municipal United Front Work Department recommended the removal of Zhao Zeying from his post of the member of the standing committee of the the Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference.

Zhao Zeying, a relative of Zhao Mingwen, together with 11 others, beat two reporters and snatched their television camera after the reporters came upon the motorcade by chance and filmed the scene March 2. The reporters from Shanxi television station suffered slight injuries.

The 12 who beat the reporters had been given penalties, including administrative detention and fines, the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection said, without elaborating.