CHINA SENTENCES TWO FORMER DEFENCE MINISTER TO DEATH WITH TWO-YEAR REPRIEVE OVER CORRUPT CHARGES

Read Time:1 Minute, 14 Second

BY JENN NOMAMIUKOR

China’s military court has given Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, who were once in charge of the country‘s defense, the death penalty with a two-year delay because of corruption accusations.

Each of them received their sentence on Thursday in Beijing, after almost two years of looking into the case.

A death sentence with a two-year reprieve is usually reserved in China for serious crimes, including major corruption, premeditated murder, and large-scale drug trafficking.

During the two‑year reprieve, the prisoner is effectively under threat of execution but, in practice, they remain in prison rather than being executed immediately.

According to the court ruling, the sentences would be reduced to life imprisonment without a chance of release or parole upon the expiration of the two-year reprieve period.

The former defence ministers were also stripped of their political rights for life, with all of their personal property confiscated.

Asides from being members of the Central Military Commission, both Wei and Li were also former state councillors.

Wei was convicted of accepting bribes, while Li was convicted of both accepting and offering bribes. The court did not say how much money was in the bribery cases, but the last known case of a high–ranking official getting a suspended death sentence was Gu Junshan, who was the deputy director of the general logistics department.