China has explained the criteria to be used to determine who among convicted corrupt Chinese officials will face the firing squad or receive the death penalty.
A statement jointly issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said those convicted for embezzling or accepting bribes of 3 million yuan (about 460,000 U.S. dollars) will get the maximum penalty.
Others whose corrupt act is deemed an “extremely serious case” with “extremely vile impact” will also be punished with death penalty.
The new judicial explanation was issued today.
China has a big problem of corruption. Incumbent President Xi Jinping has made stamping it out a cardinal policy of his administration.
In 2015, Chinese courts concluded 34,000 graft trials with about 49,000 people involved in the cases, a report said Sunday.
The figure included 134 officials at prefecture level and above, said the report on the work of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC).
Another 2,495 people were convicted of offering bribes, according to the report delivered by Chief Justice Zhou Qiang on Sunday.
All in all, prosecutors looked into 4,490 graft, bribery and embezzlement cases involving more than 1 million yuan each, said a report on the work of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP).