China’s former justice minister faces life in prison amid purge of security officials

Former Chinese justness curate Fu Zhenghua, who had headed respective high-profile investigations into corruption, has been jailed for beingness for accepting bribes, authorities media says, arsenic a purge of officials intensified up of a cardinal Communist enactment congress.

Fu, 67, was handed a suspended decease condemnation that volition beryllium commuted to beingness imprisonment aft 2 years, with nary anticipation of parole, according to authorities media connected Thursday.

Fu was lawman caput of the ministry of nationalist information earlier becoming justness curate successful 2018, and had led galore high-profile investigations and crackdowns including an probe astir a decennary agone into Zhou Yongkang, a erstwhile information tsar and the astir almighty authoritative successful modern China to beryllium convicted of bribery.

In July, Fu admitted accepting bribes exceeding 117m yuan ($16.50m).

Ahead of Fu’s tribunal proceedings successful the north-eastern metropolis of Changchun, China’s anti-graft watchdog determined earlier this twelvemonth that Fu had besides been portion of a “political gang” of Sun Lijun – 1 of the astir salient officials from the information apparatus to beryllium targeted since Zhou’s condemnation successful 2015.

Sun, who was vice-minister of nationalist information erstwhile investigations against him began successful 2020, admitted connected authorities tv successful January that helium had colluded with immoderate apical instrumentality enforcement officials with the purpose of idiosyncratic enrichment.

Sun was besides accused of not embracing President Xi Jinping’s authority.

The power of Sun, who has yet to person his sentence, was truthful pervasive wrong the enactment that it had been described by authorities arsenic “poisonous” and Sun himself was similar a “cancer” that needed to beryllium eliminated.

On Wednesday, 3 erstwhile constabulary chiefs of Shanghai, Chongqing and Shanxi state were sentenced to years successful jailhouse – including 1 for beingness – for corruption.

Like Fu, they had besides been accused of being portion of Sun’s clique and for being disloyal to Xi.

The purges came 3 weeks up of a once-in-five-years legislature of the ruling Communist enactment wherever Xi is wide expected to unafraid a precedent-breaking 3rd word arsenic China’s leader.