At noon on April 9, Li Guifu, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Tangshan Municipal People's Congress and secretary of the Qianxi County Party Committee, was taken away from Tangshan City by the staff of the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision for investigation and announced that he would be placed in custody. In the afternoon of the same day, a number of sources confirmed to the reporter of the Economic Observer.
Ma Shushan, a retired cadre from Qianxi County, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, who has attracted much attention, has made new and significant progress in the arrest and prosecution of Li Guifu, secretary of the local county party committee.
On the evening of April 9, 2024, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission announced that Li Guifu, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Tangshan Municipal People's Congress and secretary of the Qianxi County Party Committee, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
In January 2024, after the Ma Shushan case was exposed, Li Guifu was reported by many people in Qianxi County and the place where Li Guifu once worked. It is understood that more than a month ago, an important businessman in Qianxi County who intersected with Li Guifu had been taken away for investigation.
On April 9, Xinhua News Agency and Hebei Daily also reported that a working group composed of the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Court, the Provincial Procuratorate, and the Provincial Public Security Department found three major problems through comprehensive investigation and verification.
First, "Li Guifu improperly performed his duties, and should have recused himself and failed to report letter-or-visit matters that should have been accepted by his superiors, and should have studied and handled them in violation of regulations"; second, "the Qianxi County Public Security Bureau's investigation and collection of evidence was not comprehensive, and the criminal detention measures were improperly applied"; and third, "the Qianxi County Procuratorate erroneously made a decision to approve the arrest, erroneously initiated a public prosecution, and failed to conduct a review of the necessity of detention in strict accordance with the law." Therefore, it has been decided to deal with the 22 relevant responsible personnel in accordance with discipline and law.
It took less than a month from the time the police were reported to the prosecution of the "Ma Shushan case."
Ma Shushan case, which occurred in December 2023.
On December 6 last year, the office of the Qianxi County Party Committee reported to the Qianxi County Public Security Bureau that it had received a registered letter forwarded by a number of staff members, the main content of which was to reflect the abnormal and improper problems of Li Guifu and others on the issue of personnel appointments, as well as the problems of the lighting project of the main street in the urban area of Qianxi County. The issues reflected in these letters are "unsubstantiated".
The reported person, Li Guifu, born in September 1965, served as the deputy head of Fengnan District of Tangshan City, the head of Fengrun District of Tangshan City, and the secretary of the Zunhua Municipal Party Committee of Tangshan City, and was promoted to deputy mayor of Tangshan City in April 2019, and was transferred to the deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Tangshan Municipal People's Congress in August 2021, and in 2022, Li Guifu concurrently served as the secretary of the Qianxi County Party Committee, and on October 16 of the same year, he was also elected chairman of the Tangshan Federation of Trade Unions.
Several local politicians in Hebei told the Economic Observer that as early as during his tenure in Zunhua City, Li Guifu was rumored to have a "very strong" and even "arbitrary" official style.
At noon on December 8, 2023, two days after the Qianxi County Party Committee Office reported the case, Ma Shushan, a retired cadre at the senior section level of the Qianxi County Agriculture and Rural Bureau, who was over 75 years old, was taken away by the Qianxi County Public Security Bureau at his home. The next day, he was criminally detained. On December 20, the Qianxi County Procuratorate approved Ma Shushan's arrest.
On December 28 of the same year, the Qianxi County Public Security Bureau concluded its investigation of the case and transferred it to the Qianxi County Procuratorate for review and prosecution on suspicion of false accusation and framing.
Five days later, on January 2, 2024, the Qianxi County Procuratorate filed an indictment with the Qianxi County Court. At this time, the charges against Ma Shushan by the Qianxi County Procuratorate had increased to two: first, false accusation and framing, and second, defamation.
So far, from the police to the prosecution, the Ma Shushan case has taken less than a month.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate stated that it will seriously pursue the responsibility of the procuratorial organs for serious problems
On January 12, 2024, the Economic Observer (Economic Observer) exclusively reported on the case, which aroused widespread concern in the society.
On January 15, the Qianxi County People's Court issued a "Decision on Release on Bail Pending Trial", allowing Ma Shushan to be released on bail pending further investigation. At about 5 p.m. that day, he returned home, accompanied by local community workers.
On the same day, the Qianxi County Procuratorate made a decision to withdraw the indictment, withdrawing the indictment against Ma Shushan on the grounds that "there are no criminal facts".
On January 16, the Qianxi County People's Court issued a Criminal Ruling, allowing the Qianxi County Procuratorate to withdraw the indictment against Ma Shushan.
On 17 January, Ma Shushan's lawyer, Chen Wei, a lawyer from the Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, sent a legal opinion to the Qianxi County Procuratorate not to prosecute Ma Shushan, demanding that the procuratorate not prosecute Ma Shushan in accordance with the provisions of Article 177, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Law, and publicly announce the decision not to prosecute Ma Shushan in accordance with Article 178 of the Criminal Procedure Law.
On 18 January, Ying Yong, chief procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that the procuratorial organs would not prosecute the Ma Shushan case in accordance with the law; at the same time, they should seriously pursue the serious problems that exist in the procuratorial organs in the case in the determination of facts, the application of law, the application of compulsory measures, and the supervision of the performance of their duties, on the basis of ascertaining the facts and accurately determining responsibility, and in accordance with the provisions of the judicial responsibility system.
Before Li Guifu was investigated, many people in the political and business circles of the western region had already been investigated
On January 20, Hebei Province announced that the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Court, the Provincial Procuratorate, the Provincial Public Security Department and other departments would directly dispatch and send a working group to Qianxi County as soon as possible.
On January 23, the Qianxi County Procuratorate held that "according to the review opinion of the higher-level people's procuratorate, this procuratorate held after re-examination that the evidence in the case could not be concluded that Ma Shushan, who was not prosecuted, had the criminal intent to falsely accuse and frame and slander others, and that his conduct should not be found to be a crime"; therefore, the Qianxi County Procuratorate "decided not to prosecute Ma Shushan."
A number of sources told the Economic Observer that after the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Hebei Provincial officials expressed their positions, officials from the Qianxi County Public Security Bureau and the Qianxi County Procuratorate, which directly handled the Ma Shushan case, were investigated one after another.
However, since then, Li Guifu, as deputy director of the Tangshan Municipal People's Congress and secretary of the Qianxi County Party Committee, still attended a number of important official public events.
According to the above-mentioned sources, at noon on April 9, 2024, Li Guifu was taken away from Tangshan City by the staff of the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision and announced to be placed in detention.
On the evening of the same day, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission released a message confirming the investigation of Li Guifu. The Hebei Provincial Joint Working Group also announced that the 22 relevant responsible personnel involved in the Ma Shushan case were dealt with in accordance with discipline and law.