China's Supreme People's Procuratorate has confirmed that a Beijing TV reporter detained by Shanxi Province prosecutors is under investigation for taking bribes.

It also said the Xinghualing District People's Procuratorate in Taiyuan City had jurisdiction over the case.

The China Central Television reporter, identified as Li Min, was taken from her home in Beijing on Thursday night after looking into allegations that Xinghualing prosecutors abused their power while investigating a businessman.

It has also emerged Li was romantically linked to the businessman's brother, from whom she is alleged to have taken the bribes.

Li's attorney Zhou Ze told Xinmin.cn that both the Xinghualing office and supreme procuratorate had broken the law.

Zhou said the office was not a qualified investigator and should withdraw from the case. The supreme procuratorate's decision to designate the Xinghualing office to investigate Li also did not comply with the law, Zhou said.

Zhou was also the legal counsel for Zhu Wenna, a reporter from Legal Daily's Faren magazine, who suffered retaliation from a Party official in northeast China's Liaoning Province at the beginning of 2008 after publishing a story exposing the official's illicit behavior.

The official's actions sparked a nationwide protest, he was later sacked and the investigation against Zhu withdrawn.

Shanxi prosecutors have accused Li of taking bribes from the brother of businessman, identified as Wu, Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday. The prosecutors said they were legally entitled to investigate Li.

He Shusheng, the chief prosecutor of Xinghualing office, said Li received 200,000 yuan (US$29,100) from Wu's brother.

The case centers on an investigation by Li and two other reporters from Beijing Times and the Legal Daily.The journalists traveled with Li to investigate claims the Xinghualing District People's Procuratorate improperly intervened in a dispute between Wu and a Taiyuan businessman.

The prosecutors office reportedly put Wu in a detention house several times on charges of bribing officials, contract fraud and false accusations against chief prosecutor He.

(Shanghai Daily December 10, 2008)