4 Chinese Sentenced To Die In Corruption Cases

A bureaucrat, his mistress and two oil executives were sentenced to death in two unrelated corruption cases, it was reported Saturday.

As China races toward a free-market economy, corruption has increased dramatically. The latest cases are part of a national anti-embezzlement drive.

Several people convicted of corruption recently have received death sentences, which usually are carried out almost immediately with a single shot to the back of the head.

Sentences in three of the four latest cases were suspended for two years and may be commuted to life in prison.

The highest-profile case involved Wang Jianye, a former planning official in the thriving industrial city of Shenzhen on the Hong Kong border. He was convicted Friday in what the official Chinese media called the country’s biggest bribery scandal.

Wang was convicted of taking bribes worth more than $1.16 million, illegally crossing borders - he was extradited from Thailand - and bigamy, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. Wang said he would appeal.

In court, Wang was handcuffed to his mistress, Shi Yanqing, who received a death sentence for corruption, bigamy and profiteering, the newspaper said. The report did not explain the bigamy charges.

The oil executives, a manager and his associate from the Yongchuan City Petroleum Co. in southwestern Sichuan province, conspired with workers to embezzle more than $140,000 to start their own company, China’s official Legal Daily newspaper reported.

Manager Tang Dingxue and associate Yang Ming received death sentences, and others involved in the conspiracy received prison sentences ranging from three years to life in prison.

The two executives, as well as Wang’s mistress, received two-year suspensions of their death sentences, which can be commuted to life in prison for good behavior.