Senior petitions official dead in apparent suicide

A senior official in charge of China's petitioning issues has been found dead in his office in an apparent suicide, according to a news report.

Xu Ye'an, vice-head of the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, was found hanged in his office on Tuesday morning, caixin.com reported on Thursday.

A source close to the bureau confirmed Xu's death to the media, but it remains unclear why the official would kill himself.

Xu, 59, had worked at the bureau since September 2005. Before that, he worked at the Hubei provincial bureau of letters and calls since January 1982.

The State Bureau for Letters and Calls had not responded to the news report as of Thursday noon, and Xu's name was still listed as a leader on the bureau's official website.

In November, Xu Jie, another vice-head of the bureau, was investigated on corrupt allegations by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft agency.

Petitioning, also known as "letters and calls", is the administrative system for hearing public complaints and grievances, according to China's current rules and regulations.

In recent years, the number of petitioners has been large as many people experience injustice in land acquisitions, social security, education, healthcare or environmental protection matters.

In the first three quarters of last year, about 205,000 petitions were received by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, according to an SPP statement issued on Nov 29.

Petitioners can take their grievances to a higher level if they fail to get satisfactory feedback from local petition offices, but officials often prevent the public from raising such cases with the officials' superiors.

On March 19, the CPC Central Committee issued a circular to prohibit placing petitioners under any form of confinement.

"Various political and legal organs should further regulate the handling of lawsuit-related petitions, resolutely avoiding blocking the people from normal petitioning by any means," said the circular.