A former Cabinet minister was sentenced yesterday to life in prison in China's highest-level corruption case since a deputy chairman of parliament was executed in 2001.
Tian Fengshan (田鳳山), former minister of land and resources, was convicted of taking 4.4 million yuan (US$545,000) in bribes in 1995-2003 while serving as a provincial governor and then a minister, the Xinhua News Agency said.
"The defendant Tian Fengshan took advantage of his position to profit while a servant of the nation," the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said in a ruling quoted by Xinhua.
Tian escaped a more severe penalty because he confessed and "repented his crimes," Xinhua said.
Tens of thousands of officials have been punished and some executed in recent years in a long-running crackdown on corruption and other abuses that threaten to erode public acceptance of communist rule.
Tian was the governor of Heilongjiang Province in 1995-2000 and then a Cabinet minister until he was dismissed in 2003 for discipline violations.
Among those from whom he was convicted of taking bribes was Ma De, a former Communist Party official in Suihua, a city in Heilongjiang.
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