Former Beijing Prosecutor General Xiang Ming was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for crimes related to bribery and embezzlement.
This was announced by the Second Intermediate Peopleʼs Court of Beijing on August 4, according to the Chinese publication China Daily.
According to the courtʼs decision, Xiang, who served as the prosecutor general of the First Branch of the Beijing Municipal Peopleʼs Procuratorate, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for embezzlement and to 12 years in prison with a fine of 2 million yuan for accepting bribes.
The court combined the sentences for both crimes and gave him a suspended death sentence. He was also deprived of political rights for life with the confiscation of all his personal property.
The court ruled that the illegally obtained income and related profits be transferred to the state treasury.
In China, a suspended death sentence is usually commuted to life imprisonment if the convict does not commit new crimes during a two-year probationary period. Sentences can be further reduced for good behavior.
However, in Xiangʼs case, the court ruled that even if the death penalty is later commuted to life imprisonment, he will not be eligible for further reduction of sentence or parole. Details on the severity of the crimes or the exact amount of bribes have not yet been made public.
Public records show that Xiang has worked in the capitalʼs procuratorate system for decades. In 1994, he was appointed as the head of the Haidian District Procuratorate, and in 1998, he served as the deputy head of the municipal procuratorate. In March 2006, he became the general prosecutor of the First Branch of the Beijing Municipal Peopleʼs Procuratorate.
In April 2022, a disciplinary and supervisory investigation was launched against him. In December of the same year, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China. At that time, the cityʼs top anti-corruption commissions found that Xiang had seriously violated discipline and laws when he embezzled a "huge amount" of public funds and accepted "huge" bribes.
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