China food and drug chief faces graft trial

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

BEIJING (AFP) — The former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration will go on trial beginning next week for allegedly taking bribes in return for drug approvals, state media reported on Wednesday.

Zheng Xiaoyu will face an initial court hearing in Beijing in what will be a closed trial, the China Daily newspaper said.

Zheng, 63, was removed from his post in June 2005. An official investigation that concluded last month accused him of accepting more than five million yuan (650,000 dollars) in bribes to grant approvals on hundreds of medicines.

His former secretary Cao Wenzhuang, who is accused of accepting bribes totalling two million yuan, will be tried along with Zheng, the paper said.

A verdict is unlikely to be reached before June, it...