The former chief of the Luohu health bureau Lian Zhenhui went on trial at the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court yesterday for taking over 1.7 million yuan (US$212,500) in bribes.

The prosecutor representing the Shenzhen Procuratorate said in court that Lian, 59, took a large amount of bribes from private clinic owners and hospital contractors between 1995 and 2005, when he was the head of the Luohu health bureau. Lian had helped the bribe-givers win bids for construction projects and medical equipment procurement, and obtain approval for private clinics.

Lian, who had worked for the Luohu District Health Bureau since he was in his 30s, was reported last year by a bribe-giver who had been jailed in another case. He was taken into custody last December and arrested in January this year for allegedly taking bribes. Lian confessed that he had taken over 5 million yuan. The amount verified so far is about 1.7 million yuan, including 1.55 million yuan in RMB, HK$110,000 and US$10,000.

The prosecutor said that Lian had helped a construction contractor surnamed Luo win the bid for the district health bureau's dormitory building and extension project of Luohu traditional Chinese medicine hospital for which he took 150,000 yuan in return.

Luo won about 45 percent of the total bids for projects of the Luohu District Health Bureau during Lian's tenure. In return, Lian got 740,000 yuan in total from Luo.

To thank Lian for his "help" in winning the contract for constructing a Luohu women and children care hospital, a man surnamed Zhan gave him a gift bag of two tea tins after dining with Lian and his family in 2003. The tins contained 200,000 yuan in cash.
A man surnamed Xie, who runs six clinics, gave Lian 15,000 yuan in cash every month from 2004 to September 2005, which amounted to 240,000 yuan. Another clinic head surnamed Zeng gave him 20,000 yuan every Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival from 2002 to 2005.

Lian admitted to most of the allegations, but said that he never directly asked for money or hinted at it.

Lian said in court that the bribes were for his wife's two surgeries, decorating his apartment and socializing with friends. He said he only owned one apartment and had no car.

Editor: Yan