China Sentences Corrupt Prosecutor To Die

Li Baojin Convicted Of Taking Bribes, Embezzling Funds In Latest Crackdown On Graft

(AP)  A former prosecutor in northern China has been sentenced to death for taking bribes and embezzling funds totaling $2.66 million, a court official said Thursday.

The trial in the prosperous port city of Tianjin is the latest in a string of high-profile corruption cases as the communist government tries to crack down on systemic graft it says threatens its grip on power.

Li Baojin was convicted Wednesday of taking bribes worth $760,000 from seven businesses between 1996 and 2006, when he was the chief prosecutor and deputy police chief in Tianjin, a Cangzhou Intermediate People's Court official said.

The official, who refused to give his name, said Li's sentence was suspended for two years. That means the death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment if he shows good behavior for the next two years.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Li "took the bribes to seek illegal benefits for others." It did not give details.

It said Li was also convicted of misappropriating $1.9 million; from the Tianjin prosecutor's office.

Xinhua also reported Thursday that two officials with China's state-run lottery were sentenced to prison for accepting bribes from a company that wanted to supply paper for tickets.

Zhang Weihua, the former vice chief of China's Sports Lottery Administration Center, was given a 10½-year term for accepting about $20,000 and a mobile phone worth $1,000.

Liu Feng, an official in charge of lottery ticket printing, was sentenced to four years for taking more than $10,000.

The pair reportedly returned the bribes in 2005, more than a year after they took them, because they were afraid of being caught during an annual government audit, Xinhua said.

The Communist Party has been tainted by corruption scandals.

The former Shanghai party boss, Chen Liangyu, is awaiting trial for allegedly misusing the city's pension funds. In July, Zheng Xiaoyu, China's former top drug regulator, was executed for taking millions of dollars in bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic that killed at least 10 people.

[omega39-2009]

You have to admire their solution for corruption. If we tried the same thing here, the executive and legislative branches would be practically empty.

[pierson98]

Nothing is worse than a crooked police officer or prosecutor. Not a murderer, rapist, arsonist, or anything. Violent criminals attack people. Crooked cops and DAs attack the ability of society to control criminals through an organized system of justice.

From what I know of China and its central government, they do a lot of things that are shady and awful. However, I''ve got no problem with their response to this.

[esyrdr413]

This form of punishment, should be instituted in the
US and be retroactive for the last 20 yrs, and carried
out old west style, with them hanging in public view,
would make many reconsider before dishonest,disloyal,
corrupt, ect. ect.

[drinuk]

They executed the head of their FDA too, for taking graft from Big Pharma. Maybe we should allow China to run America, boy! the rats would be rowing like the clappers across the ocean.

They would run out of blindfolds here, bullets too! Time the people of America followed and sorted out our crooked elite and politicians, we surely cannot allow it to continue much longer.

[klifton2-2009]

If the same policy applies in America, we would have daily hangings of politicians and public officials. The number of crooks in politics and in corporate rooms assure us of daily hanging spectacle. No wonder, crooks love America where you can buy everything and everyone from the White House down to the corner store dealer.

[bizzzz-2009]

No wonder, crooks love America where you can buy everything and everyone from the White House down to the corner store dealer.
Klifton2,
Yea, not only do we like homegrown criminals, but we''ll take other countries criminals as well- no questions asked.

[lochlan-2009]

China knows how to stop corruption.

[toolmangler-2009]

China knows how to stop corruption.
Posted by lochlan at 01:34 PM : Dec 20, 2007


Says who. Have you ever heard the term "scapegoat"?

[greco99-2009]

Funny -- under Bush corrupt officials are more likely to be promoted, and corrupt contractors are rewarded with more no-bid, unsupervised contracts...

[red1530]

esyrdr413 you are suggesting that we pass an ex post facto law which is unconstitutional.

[tngreen]

My only reluctance to applaud this action and recommend it for application in the U.S. is the damage that it would do to our environment. I shudder to think of the devastation to our forest lands that would result from building that many gallows.

[brianbwb-2009]

esyrdr413 you are suggesting that we pass an ex post facto law which is unconstitutional.
Posted by Red1530

Not necessarily, just go for those felonies, treasons, and other crimes whose statute of limitations period is sufficiently long.
The laws that make the acts illegal are already "on the books", there is no need to pass new ones, just enforce the already existing ones.