MCLC: Liu Zhijun gets suspended death sentence

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Liu Zhijun gets suspended death sentence
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Source: NYT (7/7/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/world/asia/ex-rail-minister-in-china-gets
-a-suspended-death-sentence.html

Ex-Rail Minister in China Gets a Suspended Death Sentence
By CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY

HONG KONG — A court in Beijing on Monday gave a former Chinese minister of
railways, Liu Zhijun, a suspended death sentence after finding him guilty
of taking bribes and abusing his powers, state-run media reported. It was
the final act in Mr. Liu’s downfall, which exposed graft and cronyism at
the heart of China’s rail expansion.

The sentence, reported by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, means Mr.
Liu is likely to face life in prison if, as is usually the case, the death
sentence is commuted after two years of good behavior. In handing down the
sentence, the court presented Mr. Liu as a case study in the corrupt
self-enrichment among officials that China’s Communist Party leader, Xi
Jinping, has said he will stamp out.

Mr. Liu diverted railway construction and freight projects to a
businesswoman, Ding Yuxin, also known as Ding Shumiao, and other
associates, in return taking bribes worth a total of 64.6 million
renminbi, or about $10.5 million, the court found, according to Xinhua.
The verdict followed a trial in June.

“He brought massive economic gains for Ding Yuxin and her relatives,
sustaining major losses to public finances,” the court said. “He tarnished
the reputation of public servants.”

Chinese media reports on Mr. Liu’s downfall have also dwelled on
allegations that he used his corrupt earnings to maintain as many as 18
mistresses.

Mr. Liu, 60, was minister of railways from 2003 until 2011, and under him
the ministry championed a high-speed train rollout. A train crash that
killed 40 people in July 2011, five months after Mr. Liu was fired from
office, fanned criticisms that the high-speed expansion had been hasty and
ill-managed.

This year, the Chinese government broke up the Ministry of Railways,
putting its administrative arm under the Ministry of Transportation and
separating its business operations into a new corporation.

Mr. Liu’s lawyer submitted a guilty plea at the trial and asked the court
to take into account Mr. Liu’s contrition and confessions, and the court
gave that as a reason for not ordering his execution.

“Whether I live or die, I won’t appeal,” Mr. Liu earlier told his lawyer,
according to a report on the Web site of the People’s Daily newspaper.

In another case that has prompted widespread discussion in China,
prosecutors announced that they have indicted on rape charges Li Tianyi,
the teenage son of Li Shuangjiang, a People’s Liberation Army celebrity
singer, Xinhua reported. The report gave no date for a trial.

The younger Mr. Li’s politically privileged background prompted
accusations that he was being protected from the charges that arose from
an alleged gang sexual assault of a girl in a hotel room in February. But
others have said that Mr. Li, whom news reports have said is 17 years old,
and other teenage suspects in the case have not been given the protections
and anonymity that Chinese law grants them.

Li Tianyi already gained notoriety in 2011 for assaulting a couple after a
collision with a BMW car that he was driving without a license, an episode
that in the eyes of Chinese people exemplified the privileged, reckless
lifestyles of many offspring of senior officials. He served one year in a
“re-education” facility for minors for that offense.