China

Former officer sentenced in bribery case

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-25 11:39

XI'AN - A former high-ranking police official was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Tuesday, the latest official convicted of taking bribes in the country.

Zheng Shaodong, the former assistant Minister of Public Security, received the penalty for accepting bribes and abusing his position, according to the ruling from a local intermediate court in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Under existing laws and regulations, a suspended death sentence is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, if the criminal does not commit any offenses while in jail.

According to a statement from the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court, Zheng abused his various positions and accepted bribes worth more than 8.26 million yuan ($1.04 million) from 2001 to October 2007. All of Zheng's illicitly-gained assets have been confiscated, it said.

Prosecutors have also accused Zheng of seeking personal gain by using his authority to illegally help others, including seeking favors for people under criminal investigation, providing job promotions and procuring employment.

From 2001 to 2005, Zheng was deputy head of the Department of Public Security in South China's Guangdong province and then the director of the economic crimes investigation bureau under the Ministry of Public Security.

In April 2005, he was promoted to assistant Minister of Public Security.

Earlier Chinese media reports also linked Zheng's fall to a probe of Huang Guangyu, once one of the country's richest businessmen and the founder of home appliance retailer GOME, who was found guilty in May of bribery, insider trading and illegal business dealings.

The court also stripped Zheng of his political rights for life and confiscated all his assets, the court statement said.

Official corruption and abuses are among the widely voiced complaints of Chinese people, and State leaders regularly warn that discontent over the problem could affect stability and erode Party's reputation.

Figures from the Supreme People's Procuratorate show that prosecutors nationwide last year investigated about 41,000 officials for embezzlement, bribery, dereliction of duty and other work-related crimes. More than 32,000 cases in 2009 were probed, up 0.9 percent over the previous year.

Xinhua - Reuters