Former rail official to be tried on bribery charges

A former railway official has been charged with taking a huge amount of bribes and will stand trial soon, Beijing's No 2 Intermediate People's Court said on Monday.

Su Shunhu, a former deputy chief of the transport bureau of the then Ministry of Railways - now named China Railway Corp - is charged with accepting bribes of more than 24 million yuan ($3.9 million).

Prosecutors said Su, 59, is suspected of taking bribes from 2003 to 2011. The largest sum, 11.94 million yuan, was from Zhou Yunfu, who owned a trade company in Jiangsu province from 2003 to 2008. Su helped Zhou to transport coal.

Su was suspended from his post in June 2011.

Prior to that, Su's superior officer, Zhang Shuguang, former director of the bureau and the ministry's deputy chief engineer, was removed from office and investigated in February 2011 for corruption.

In early July, Liu Zhijun, former railways minister, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery and abuse of power.

Official figures released on Monday show that prosecutors investigated 141 crime cases involving railway staff in the first half of the year.

The figure was 4.4 percent higher than the same period last year, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

- Cao Yin