4 Chinese judges accused of soliciting prostitutes suspended

Four senior judges of a Shanghai court in China have been suspended following an investigation into allegations that they hired prostitutes at a night club, officials said today.
The four suspended judges include Chen Xueming, chief of the No.1 civil court of the Shanghai Higher People's Court, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The investigation was launched after a netizen released video footage showing the four judges soliciting prostitutes at the Hengshan Resort in Shanghai on June 9.
Two officials -- Chen and Zhao Minghua, deputy chief of the court's No.1 civil court -- have been identified. The court pledged a thorough probe and harsh punishment if the allegations are found to be true.

Earlier reports said five judges were involved in the scandal.
A 10-minute video clip posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed five men getting cosy with several young women. They were later identified as judges in Shanghai High People's Court.

The hotel's surveillance camera purportedly showed five scantily dressed women entering the rooms of the judges late at night and exiting about half an hour later stuffing money into their bras, the state-run Global Times reported.
An unidentified whistle-blower named two of the five judges as Chen and Zhao. He alleged that Zhao and his family owned at least four properties worth millions of yuan in Shanghai.

As the microblog network spread across China, surpassing over 400 million, several such scandals are coming to light. Previously several highly placed officials lost their jobs and faced investigations over similar videos.