By staff reporters Qing Xudong and Wang Heyan

The vice president of the Supreme People’s Court of China has been sacked after becoming the nation’s highest justice official ever targeted by a Communist Party investigation.

Huang Songyou lost his job October 28 after the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress voted to remove him from the court post he’s held since 2002.

Caijing learned that Huang, 51, has been detained by party investigators since October 15 for alleged bribery, corruption and a lack of moral integrity. Other details of the case were not released.

Sources told Caijing that Huang’s downfall can be traced to the investigation of Yang Xiancai, a former chief judge for the highest court in Guangdong Province.

The party’s central discipline inspectors started probing Yang in June, prompting his arrest on charges tied to a controversial land auction he handled in 2005.

The investigation was an unusual move against a provincial official, who would normally be probed by province-level inspectors, leading to speculation that Yang may have been linked to a wider investigation involving additional and more important suspects. Four Guangdong lawyers were called to assist the probe after Yang’s arrest.

Yang and Huang are close friends from the same region.

A Guangdong native, Huang had served in the justice system since 1978. He was appointed to the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing in 1999, and was promoted to vice president and grand justice in 2002.

Huang earned a law doctorate and has published several academic papers and books, but reportedly has a bad reputation inside legal circles.