Chinese authorities have sent the corruption case against ex-national security chief Zhou Yongkang to prosecutors in the latest move in President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign.
Beijing's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced on its website Wednesday that Zhou's case along with several others has been sent to "judicial organs," paving the way for a trial.
Zhou is the highest-profile official so far to be caught up in President Xi's anti-corruption sweep.
In early December, Yongkang was arrested and stripped of his Communist Party membership on charges of leaking state secrets and taking bribes. The retired member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee is the highest level Chinese Communist official to be prosecuted in more than three decades.
It is unclear if the anti-graft campaign will succeed, since it does not appear to be working alongside any wider reforms of China's political system. In addition, the country's courts are controlled by the Communist Party, making it difficult to judge whether corruption convictions have political motives.
But President Xi has vowed to push ahead with the campaign, saying rampant corruption is threatening the legitimacy and rule of the party, which is the only ruling faction in China.
