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Two former defense ministers were sentenced to death for corruption (ria.ru)

submitted 2 weeks ago by rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml to c/china@lemmygrad.ml

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BEIJING, May 7 — RIA Novosti. A military court in China has sentenced former defense ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe to death for corruption, China Central Television reports.

"Li Shangfu was found guilty of accepting and giving bribes and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve," the statement said.

Wei Fenghe was also sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

The former ministers were stripped of their political rights, and all their property was confiscated. After the deferment expires, their sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of commutation or parole.

General Li Shangfu was confirmed as head of the Ministry of Defense in March 2023. Prior to this, he served as director of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, deputy commander of the PLA Strategic Support Force , and from 2017 to 2022, he headed the Troop Training and Supply Department of the Central Military Commission of China.

In October 2023, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress removed Li Shangfu from his posts as Minister of Defense, State Councilor, and Central Military Commission member. In June 2024, it was reported that he was under investigation for corruption. He was also expelled from the Communist Party of China.

Wei Fenghe served as Minister of Defense from 2018 to 2023. In June 2024, he was suspected of corruption and expelled from the Communist Party.

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[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"Li Shangfu was found guilty of accepting and giving bribes and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve," the statement said. Wei Fenghe was also sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

The former ministers were stripped of their political rights, and all their property was confiscated. After the deferment expires, their sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of commutation or parole.

Can someone perhaps explain this a bit more? Is the two year "reprieve" mentioned in the first paragraph the same thing as the "deferment" mentioned in the second? English isn't my first language so maybe i'm not properly understanding the difference between these two terms. Does this mean that they effectively got life imprisonment and not the death penalty? What are the circumstances in which the death penalty would be carried out?

[–] rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is what I found from Baidu wiki:

Article 48: [Applicable subjects and approval procedures for the death penalty and suspended death sentence] The death penalty is only applicable to criminals who have committed extremely serious crimes. For criminals who should be sentenced to death, if immediate execution is not deemed necessary, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve may be imposed simultaneously.

Except for death sentences imposed by the Supreme People's Court in accordance with the law, all death sentences shall be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval. A death sentence with a reprieve may be imposed or approved by a higher people's court.

Article 50: [Commutation of a suspended death sentence] If a criminal sentenced to death with a reprieve does not intentionally commit a crime during the reprieve period, the sentence shall be commuted to life imprisonment upon the expiration of the two-year period; if there is truly major meritorious performance, the sentence shall be commuted to fixed-term imprisonment of twenty-five years upon the expiration of the two-year period; if an intentional crime is committed and the circumstances are heinous, the death penalty shall be executed after being reported to and approved by the Supreme People's Court; for those who commit an intentional crime but are not executed, the period of the death sentence reprieve shall be recalculated, and the case shall be reported to the Supreme People's Court for the record.

For recidivists sentenced to death with a reprieve and criminals sentenced to death with a reprieve for intentional homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, arson, explosion, dissemination of hazardous substances, or organized violent crimes, the people's court may, based on the circumstances of the crime and other factors, concurrently decide to restrict commutation of their sentence.

Source -> https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/death%20penalty%20with%20a%20two-year%20reprieve/1539242

[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks! That clears a lot of things up.

[–] Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago

I think the idea behind the death sentence with reprieve is to encourage them to confess to any crimes investigators haven't caught. If unconfessed crimes are found out during that 2 years it will trigger the death penalty.

"We know you are guilty, tell us everything and you can spend the rest of your life in a cell, if you lie to us or hold back you are dead."

Investigators can then use the testimony to get the other people who were involved.

So this guy might have slipped up one time and it got him caught by the Anti-corruption cops and they can then leverage that one crime to get him to confess every other dirty deal he did and then prosecute the other person involved in every one of them. Like knocking down entire houses of cards.