A court in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region This Tuesday he executed the death warrant contra Li Jianpingformer official convicted of corruption, embezzlement of public funds and collusion with criminal organizations. The execution occurred after the review and approval of the sentence by the Supreme People’s Court of China, the country’s highest judicial body reported on its official account on the Wechat social network.
Li, former secretary of the Communist Party Committee in the Economic and Technological Development Zone of the regional capital, Hohhot, had been found guilty in the first instance in September 2022 by the Xingan Town Intermediate Court, which imposed the sentence of death, the deprivation of his political rights for life and the total confiscation of his personal property. After the defendant appealed the sentence, the Inner Mongolia High Court upheld the verdict last August and referred the decision to the Supreme Court for review.
The highest judicial body concluded that, during his performance as a public official, Li took advantage of his position to illegally appropriating state funds worth more than 1.437 billion yuan (197 million US dollars, 187 million euros). In addition, he accepted bribes totaling 577 million yuan (79 million dollars, 75 million euros) in exchange for favors and diverted another 1,055 million yuan (144 million dollars, 137 million euros) of public funds. Likewise, the Supreme Court determined that Li breached his duties as a state official by being complicit in the illicit activity of a criminal organization.
The ruling highlights that Li’s actions caused “extraordinary losses” to the interests of the State and the population, with a “particularly negative” social impact. Due to the magnitude and seriousness of the crimes, the death penalty was deemed “legal and appropriate.”
Before his execution, the inmate had the opportunity to meet with his closest relatives, the court statement said.
It is common for officials convicted of corruption in China to receive a suspended death sentence, which means that if the prisoner does not commit new crimes and behaves appropriately during the period in which the suspension is in effect, could see his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Courts reserve unsuspended death sentences for the most serious cases of corruption.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who consolidated his power at the head of the country during the 20th Congress held by the Chinese Communist Party in 2022, sharpened his perennial anti-corruption campaign by punishing at least 610,000 officials last year. The leader announced in that Congress, in which he cemented his already enormous power, that he would deepen the campaign against corruption because “the situation is still serious.”
China does not publish official execution figures, but Amnesty International estimates that thousands of death sentences are carried out each year in the Asian country..
