Former Chinese Justice Minister sentenced to death for malfeasance and bribery

Sep. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A court in China has sentenced former Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua to death on Thursday for prevarication and bribery, a sentence that has been suspended for a period of two years.

Fu has been found guilty of accepting bribes worth 117 million yuan (about 16.7 million euros) and taking advantage of his position for personal gain, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Thus, a court in Changchun, in Jilin province, has indicated that Fu committed abuse of power in the positions he held between 2005 and 2021, including his period at the head of the Ministry of Justice between 2018 and 2020 and his position as director of Beijing Public Security between 2014 and 2015.

The court has detailed that during his period in this last position he used his influence to protect one of his brothers, suspected of several crimes, and prevented him from being investigated and tried.

Likewise, he has pointed out that Fu is deprived of his political rights and has ordered the confiscation of all his assets, arguing that his actions have caused “enormous losses” to the interests of the State and the population.

However, he has argued that the suspension of the sentence is a gesture of clemency in recognition that Fu confessed his acts, showed remorse and has cooperated with the authorities in returning the stolen goods.

In this sense, the court has explained that, after these two years, the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment, although it has emphasized that no sentence reduction will be granted to him apart from the possible commutation of the sentence.