Thursday, 16 October 2008

Sex Video Toppled Vice-Mayor of Beijing

An hour-long sex tape secretly recorded by a mistress triggered the downfall of Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua , it was reported yesterday.

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Guanyu said...

Sex Video Toppled Vice-Mayor of Beijing

Zhuang Pinghui
16 October 2008

An hour-long sex tape secretly recorded by a mistress triggered the downfall of Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua , it was reported yesterday.

Zhang Yike , one of Liu’s mistresses, videotaped them having sex at a luxury hotel after he failed to return her favours. She then sent the tape to Beijing authorities, the Hong Kong China News Agency reported.

Liu had many mistresses and, for convenience, built a “luxury palace” in the Beijing suburbs managed by one mistress, the report said.

Liu is the highest-ranking Beijing official to fall from grace since the downfall of city party secretary Chen Xitong in 1995. Liu’s trial at Hengshui Intermediate People’s Court in Hebei on Tuesday came more than two years after he was taken away for an internal party investigation. Xinhua reported he led “a decadent life”.

Prosecutors accused Liu, 59, of taking 6.96 million yuan (HK$7.61 million) in bribes in league with one of his mistresses, Wang Jianrui , in return for help in acquiring land development and bank loans.

Wang, 48, a legal representative of a construction engineering company, allegedly won projects for a tennis court, hockey ground and archery field at the Olympic Green development, with Liu’s help. Liu was in charge of infrastructure and Olympic venue construction before being sacked in June 2006, mainland magazine Caijing said.

Liu admitted that Wang, who stood trial yesterday for accepting bribes, was his lover. Liu’s wife and his son were present at the trial, the report said.

Most of Liu’s bribes were from developers, the Caijing report said.

Liu helped Beijing Zhongrong Property sell an unfinished building to the State Administration of Machinery Industry for 400 million yuan and approved a redevelopment project, for which he solicited bribes of 4 million yuan and a car valued at more than 400,000 yuan, according to the indictment.

He also demanded two flats, one worth 520,000 yuan and the other almost 1 million yuan, from developers for himself and Wang.

The report said Liu wept three times during the trial when recalling how he started as a coal miner and was promoted to an official of deputy minister level in charge of construction. He admitted most details of the bribes and said he had lost his resolve as he was promoted.