Former Chinese Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua, known for leading anti-corruption investigations, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday (22) on charges of accepting bribes, following a decision that suspended the application of the prison sentence. death after Fu’s cooperation in other investigations.
Before taking over the Ministry of Justice in 2018, the then-convict held the Public Security portfolio and came into the spotlight in 2015, when he coordinated investigations against Zhou Yongkang, the former head of the area and the most powerful official in modern China to be convicted of corruption.
A self-confessed defendant, Fu began his career as a police inspector in Beijing. In July of this year, he admitted to accepting bribes worth 117 million yuan (R$85.7 million) and was tried in a Changchun court that found his participation in a “political gang” of Sun Lijun – the most prominent figure in the world. country’s security area to be indicted since Zhou’s conviction.
Sun was deputy minister of public security when he was denounced for taking bribes. In January, he admitted to colluding with high-ranking officials in the ministry to embezzle money and was accused of disobedience to leader Xi Jinping.
The wave of arrests comes three weeks before the Chinese Communist Party congress, at which Xi hopes to see his third term passed – an unprecedented feat among Chinese leaders.
Although Sun is still awaiting his conviction, there are a number of lawsuits targeting authorities in the sector he coordinated.
On Wednesday, three police chiefs from Shanghai, Chongqing and Shanxi provinces were sentenced to harsh sentences – one of them also to life imprisonment. All were accused of participating in Sun’s gang and disloyalty to the Chinese government.
In addition to these cases, there is one of greater political involvement. The head of the Chinese Communist Party’s legal and political committee in Jiangsu (in the east of the country), Wang Like, was accused of bribing Sun Lijun and also sentenced to life imprisonment.
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