China ex-rail minister given suspended death sentence

  08 July 2013    Read: 529
China ex-rail minister given suspended death sentence
A Chinese court has given former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun a suspended death sentence for corruption and abuse of power, state media report.
Liu was accused of accepting bribes totalling over 64m yuan ($10m; £6m) over 25 years.

Prosecutors said he awarded government rail contracts in return for bribes.

Liu is the most high-profile official to be tried and found guilty of corruption since Xi Jinping became China`s leader earlier this year.

Mr Xi has called for a crackdown on corruption, vowing to tackle it from the powerful "tigers" at the top to the "flies" at the bottom of the Communist Party.

China`s railways ministry, once a powerful department, was disbanded in March.

It had been criticised for a series of safety scandals, and faced allegations of fraud which were uncovered by government audits.

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