BEIJING: A Chinese court gave life sentence to a former senior railway official Zhang Shuguang for taking $7.7 million in bribes.
Zhang Shuguang, once deputy chief engineer at China’s Ministry of Railways, was on Friday given a death sentence suspended for two years by a court in Beijing.
The court heard he used his position to help companies secure rail contracts. He was an associate of Liu Zhijun, the former railways minister who was given a suspended death sentence in 2013.
Many officials of different ranks have been charged in recent months after China’s leader Xi Jinping called for a crackdown on corruption.
Zhang was fired from his position in February 2011, soon after Liu was taken into detention. Zhang pleaded guilty to 13 charges related to bribery in court in September.
Friday’s death sentence was suspended for two years, however, death sentences are often commuted to life imprisonment in China. Zhang was also deprived of his political rights for life and had his property confiscated.
His deputy Su Shunhu was found guilty of taking bribes worth more than 24m yuan and jailed for life.
Once a very powerful department, China’s railways ministry was dismantled in March last year.
It came after two high-speed trains collided in 2011, killing 40 people. The incident led to a probe into the industry and many officials were charged with corruption and abuse of power.
China has the world’s longest network of high-speed rail lines with more than 10,000km (6,200 miles) of track.
