China’s former agriculture minister sentenced to death for corruption
China’s former agriculture minister Tang Renjian has been handed a death sentence with a two-year reprieve on allegations of corruption and bribery.
The People’s Court of Changchun in northeast Jilin Province stated, according to Xinhua News Agency, on Sunday.
Mr Renjian was accused of collecting property and cash bribes totalling over $38 million between 2007 and 2024.
The court said that Mr Renjian had “caused severe losses to the interest of the state and its people, therefore warranted a death penalty”.
It added that the former minister himself had confessed to the crime, returned illicit gains, and expressed remorse for his actions, mitigating a more severe verdict such as an immediate execution.
The former Gansu governor’s death sentence would be suspended for two years as a result of a reprieve, based on a criminal punishment code found in chapter 5 (death penalty), sections 48, 50, and 51 of the criminal law of China.
A reprieve would give the 63-year-old politician a chance to either serve life imprisonment or a fixed term based on meritorious behaviour during the period of his suspended sentence.
His sentencing is the latest among other cases of high-profile individuals who have been handed capital punishments by President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign for similar offences.
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