The sacking of an allegedly corrupt Beijing vice mayor who was in charge of
overseeing construction projects for the 2008 Olympics will not affect the
Games, organizers have said.
Liu Zhihua was sacked on Sunday as one of the city's nine vice mayors on
suspicion of corruption, according to a statement on the Beijing government's
website. It did not give specific details about his alleged crimes.
"Liu's situation will have no influence on the preparations for hosting the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games," Sun Weide, vice head of communications for the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), told AFP.
"Liu Zhihua was not a member of the organizing committee, he has no
relationship with BOCOG."
Liu, 57, was in charge of overseeing construction, real estate, sports and
traffic projects in the capital. He has reported to the city's parliament each
year on progress.
The Beijing legislature's standing committee found "the facts of Liu Zhihua's
wrongdoings are clear, the evidence irrefutable, the circumstances serious and
the influence vile," Xinhua reported Sunday without giving details.
After an investigation, the ruling Communist Party's disciplinary body would
hand the case over to state prosecutors for criminal prosecution, Xinhua said.
The BOCOG's Sun and a spokesman for the city government declined to comment
on whether Liu's allegedly corrupt activities involved any Olympic-related work.
Sun did not answer questions on the issue, referring queries to the city
government. The city spokesman, who declined to be named, said Liu's sacking was
due to his own "personal problems" but gave no details.
Liu was named a Beijing vice mayor in 1999, after rising through the city
government as a labor official and an economic planning administrator.
His dismissal was the highest official sacking in the city since Beijing's
former mayor and once the capital's highest Communist Party official, Chen
Xitong, was jailed for 16 years for corruption in 1998.
