Former railways official pleads guilty

Zhang says he longed for fame and wealth; lawyers ask for leniency

A former high-ranking official in China's high-speed railway system pleaded guilty to charges of accepting 47.55 million yuan ($7.77 million) in bribes.

Zhang Shuguang, former director of the transport bureau under the then-ministry of railways — now China Railway Corp — stood trial at Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday. The sentence was not announced after the trial.

Zhang's trial follows the one last week of Su Shunhu, former deputy chief of the bureau, who was charged with accepting 24 million yuan in bribes. Su also pleaded guilty, but his lawyer, Zheng Fucheng, questioned the prosecutor's sum of bribes at the trial. Su's sentence also has not been announced.

Zhang, 56, from Jiangsu province, was also the ministry's former deputy chief engineer and the right-hand man of Liu Zhijun, the former railways minister who was sentenced to death in early July with a two-year reprieve for accepting 64.6 million yuan in bribes and abuse of power.

Zhang was suspended from office in February 2011 and charged with bribery in December 2012.

Wearing a black jacket, the gray-haired Zhang was taken to the courtroom at 9:34 am. The trial lasted almost eight hours.

During the trial, prosecutors accused Zhang of accepting massive amounts of bribes from 13 companies while he worked for the bureau from 2000 to 2011.

The largest sum that Zhang took was 18.5 million yuan from Wang Jianxin, head of a company in Wuhan, Hubei province, after Zhang "helped" Wang improve railway-related technology in 2007 to 2009, according to prosecutors.

From 2005 to 2009, Zhang asked Ge Jianming, head of a company in Jiangsu, to offer him bribes of 8 million yuan in Zhang's pursuit of the title of academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a title he did not get, the prosecutors said.

In the courtroom, Zhang confessed he had met Ge more than 20 years ago and required him to supply money.

In the prosecutors' accusation, Zhang also accepted bribes of more than 10.5 million yuan from Yang Jianyu, head of a company in Guangdong province, after Zhang assisted Yang with contract bids.