A leading official in a district in Anhui Province could face trial for abuse of power, after being sacked from a city legislature.

Zhang Zhi'an, the Communist Party chief of Yingquan District, Fuyang City, was sacked from his deputy's post on Fuyang People's Congress, the local legislature, according to the city government on Thursday. A post on the city legislature means that the holder is immune from prosecution, and has to be removed from that post before legal action can take place.

Zhang was taken from his office on June 5 by the provincial discipline inspection and prosecution authorities, following an investigation into the suspicious death of a businessman who had petitioned the central government over local abuses of power.

Earlier, the Yingquan district's chief prosecutor Wang Cheng and anti-corruption chief Zheng Tao had been suspended and put under investigation.

A joint team of the provincial discipline inspection and prosecution authorities investigated the sudden death, initially termed a suicide, in March of Li Guofu, a veteran businessman.

Li had accused Zhang of various abuses of power, which "climaxed" in the construction of a luxury government building designed to look like the White House of the United States.

According to earlier reports, Li, former head of a real estate development company in Fuyang, had traveled to Beijing several times hoping to bring Zhang to justice for turning nearly 500 hectares of fertile farmland into industrial and ecological belts, hotels, a golf course, a racecourse and a landmark government office building.

Sources close to the local government said the building, which was put into use in 2003, cost at least 30 million yuan (4.3 million U.S. dollars), nearly one third of the total revenue of Yingquan district.

Li, in his petition to authorities in Beijing, said Zhang had "put a close friend in charge of the construction and sold the old government office facilities to real estate developers, too."

He was detained by the local procuratorate in August 2007. He was then accused of fabricating official documents and seals, embezzling nearly 1 million yuan of public funds, and making 610,000 yuan of illegal profits by reselling properties.

Li had been under treatment since mid-January at the Fuyang prison hospital for cardiovascular disease and diabetes that had blinded him.

He was said by prison workers to have hanged himself on March 13, a few hours before he was to meet his lawyer.

Li's family, however, questioned the claim of suicide.

Fuyang City, with a population of 9.3 million, in 2003 was accused of covering up a scandal over low-quality milk powder that killed at least 12 babies.

Editor: Yan