Chinese state tobacco official sentenced to death with reprieve for taking bribes

Dalian (China), May 29 (IANS) He Zehua, former deputy chief of China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, has been sentenced to death, with a two-year reprieve, for taking huge amounts of bribes, media reports said on Wednesday.

The sentence was handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court of Dalian, Liaoning Province, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The court ruling said that after the two-year reprieve period expires and the penalty is commuted to life imprisonment in accordance with the law, no further commutation or parole will be allowed.

He was also deprived of his political rights for life, all of his personal property was confiscated, and all his illegal gains were recovered and turned over to the state treasury.

The court found that between 1998 and 2023, He took undue advantage of his various positions, including those as a senior official at local tobacco monopoly agencies, as well as the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration deputy chief, to provide help for others in matters concerning business operations, project contracting, and personnel promotion and recruitment, illegally accepting money and gifts worth over 943 million yuan (about 132.6 million U.S. dollars) in return.

He was also found to have abused his influence on the posts he formerly held to seek unfair benefits for others between 2014 and 2016, accepting money and gifts worth over 1.47 million yuan in return.

The court ruling said the amount of bribes involved in He’s crimes was particularly huge, the circumstances were especially serious, and the social impact was extremely bad, causing significant losses to the interests of the country and the people.

However, part of the bribes had not been actually obtained by He, and he had been cooperative in the investigation and in returning the illegal gains, which had been recovered in full. These facts were taken into consideration when handing down the sentence.

–IANS

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