BEIJING (REUTERS) - A former aide to China's embattled retired domestic security boss, Zhou Yongkang, has been expelled from the Communist Party after taking "huge bribes" and committing adultery, China's top anti-corruption body said on Wednesday.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said the case of Ji Wenlin would be handed over to prosecutors.
"Ji Wenlin took advantage of his position to seek benefits for others, solicited and obtained huge bribes and engaged in adultery," the CCDI said in a statement posted on its website, the first details of Ji's suspected crimes.
Ji is the latest in a string of Zhou allies to fall. Several of Zhou's associates have been held in custody and questioned about suspected corruption, including former Vice Minister of Public Security Li Dongsheng and Jiang Jiemin, who was the top regulator of state-owned enterprises for just five months until September.
Sources have told Reuters that Zhou is under virtual house arrest, though the party made no announcement about his case.
Also expelled were Yu Gang, an ex-vice director of the office of the Central Politics and Law Commission (CPLC), and Tan Hong, a former senior staff officer of the Ministry of Public Security, it said in separate statements.
Zhou used to head the CPLC, which oversees the public security ministry. Overseas Chinese reports claimed Ji, Yu and Tan were all his secretaries. All three took advantage of their posts and "accepted huge amounts of bribes by seeking gains for others", the CCDI said, adding that their cases have been transferred to judicial authorities for criminal prosecution.
President Xi Jinping has vowed to take down high-flying "tigers" as well as lowly "flies" in a campaign against graft.
The CCDI said in February that Ji was under investigation for serious discipline violations, a euphemism for engaging in graft. He was sacked from his post as vice governor of the southern island of Hainan in March.
Ji worked with Zhou when the latter was land resources minister in the late 1990s. After Zhou became the party boss of Sichuan province, Ji worked under him, his official resume shows.
The two also worked together in the Ministry of Public Security in the early 2000s. Ji moved to his post in Hainan, known for its beaches and posh resorts, in late 2010.
Zhou was a patron of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power in the worst political scandal in decades.
China said on Monday it would court marshal on of its most senior former military officers on corruption charges.
