Former Chinese Minister of Justice Fu Zhenghua (傅政華), who led several high-profile investigations into corruption, has been jailed for life for accepting bribes, state media said yesterday, as a purge of officials intensified ahead of a key Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress.
Fu, 67, was handed a suspended death sentence that would be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, with no possibility of parole, state media said.
Fu was deputy head of the Ministry of Public Security before becoming justice minister in 2018, leading many high-profile investigations and crackdowns including a probe beginning in 2013 of Zhou Yongkang (周永康), a former senior security official and the most powerful civil servant in modern China to be convicted of bribery.
Photo: REUTERS
In July, Fu admitted accepting bribes exceeding 117 million yuan (US$16.5 million).
Ahead of Fu’s trial in the northeastern city of Changchun, China’s anti-graft watchdog determined earlier this year that Fu had also been part of a “political gang” headed by former Chinese deputy minister of public security Sun Lijun (孫力軍) — one of the most prominent officials from the security apparatus to be targeted since Zhou’s conviction in 2015.
Sun in January admitted on state television that he had colluded with some senior law enforcement officials with the aim of personal enrichment.
Sun was also accused of not embracing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) authority.
The influence of Sun, who has yet to receive his sentence, was so pervasive within the CCP that it had been described by authorities as “poisonous,” while they described Sun himself as like a “cancer” that needed to be eliminated.
On Wednesday, three former police chiefs of Shanghai, Chongqing and Shanxi Province were sentenced to years-long prison terms — including one for life — for corruption.
Like Fu, they had also been accused of being part of Sun’s clique and for being disloyal to Xi.
The purges came three weeks ahead of a once-in-five-years CCP National Congress, at which Xi is widely expected to secure a precedent-breaking third term.
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