Sun Lijun, a former vice minister of public security, was sentenced to death on Friday with a two-year reprieve for bribery, stock market manipulation, and illegally possessing firearms.
Sun was also stripped of his political rights for life, and all of his personal assets were confiscated, according to the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court in northeast China’s Jilin Province.
Sun received more than 646 million yuan (92.39 million US dollars) in cash and valuables from various positions he held between 2001 and April 2020, according to the court.
The court also determined that Sun manipulated stock trading in the first half of 2018, saving others 145 million yuan.
Sun also illegally possessed two firearms, according to the court.
The sum of bribes Sun had taken was especially huge, and his crimes caused a specially heavy loss to the interests of the state and people, said the court.
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It added that the circumstance of his crime in manipulating the stock market was particularly serious and that illegally possessing firearms was serious.
The court said that Sun was granted a lenient sentence, considering that he had provided investigators with clues to other major cases, contributing to a major meritorious service for the investigation.
It said he had also confessed to all of his crimes, including some acts of bribe-taking that investigators were not initially aware of.
It added that he had shown repentance and had been cooperative in returning his illegal gains.
After the two-year reprieve for his death sentence, Sun’s sentence can be commuted to life in prison in accordance with the law, but no further reduction or parole shall be given to him, the court said.
