China's whistle-blower judge in custody of anti-corruption agency and facing accusations of theft and fabrication

The Chinese supreme court judge at the centre of a judiciary scandal was on Friday accused of theft and fabrication, state media reported, after police in Beijing wrapped up their investigations.

Wang Linqing, the assistant judge of the Supreme People's Court, is now in the custody of Beijing city's anti-corruption agency, Xinhua reported.

The scandal involved the disappearance of court papers in a mining rights case in which the plaintiff, businessman Zhao Faqi, was in police custody and under investigation.

With Wang detained by the anti-corruption agency, his access to legal counsel was limited until his transfer to the custody of prosecutors, according to Chinese law.Wang, 45, made headlines in December as the person who exposed the disappearance of documents from his own office.

Xinhua quoted police as saying Wang stole the documents and destroyed them to vent anger at his colleagues.

The papers, which went missing in late 2016, involved a contract dispute between private firm Kechley Energy Investment, headed by Zhao, and the state-owned Xian Institute of Geological and Mineral Exploration.

Zhao launched a legal action over ownership of a mine in Shaanxi province in northwest China in 2006. He won that case in the Supreme People's Court in 2017.

But more than a year after the final ruling, the judgment has not been implemented.

The Zhao case came to light in December after posts on microblogging platform Weibo by former television host Cui Yongyuan and a leaked video of Wang.

In the video, Wang claimed two closed-circuit TV cameras in his office were sabotaged, at around the time the documents disappeared.

The case caused an outcry in China, at a time when the country's leadership, including President Xi Jinping, was trying to restore the confidence of the private sector in the government.

Questions were raised across social media about whether the loss of the documents was a result of interference in the case.

In February, Wang admitted on state television that he was responsible for the disappearance of the documents.

The report on Friday said police were continuing their investigation into Zhao.

Some lawyers have disputed that legal documents in a civilian case were secret.

Wang and Zhao had sent the documents to Cui, who posted them online, Xinhua said.

On Friday, Cui apologised and said that he had not verified their content.

"(I will) seriously reflect on my behaviour, and (will) never trust unverified information at any time," he wrote on social media.

Cui, now a director of a research centre affiliated with the China University of Communication, said: "I will fully devote myself to academic research and spend more energy on being a good person and teaching students."

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.


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