by Staff writer
Zhang Zhongsheng, a former vice mayor of Lyuliang City in north China’s Shanxi Province, was on Wednesday sentenced to death for taking bribes by a Chinese court.
Zhang Zhongsheng showed ‘extreme greed’ and was handed most severe punishment for ‘big losses he caused to the nation and the people of the China’, court ruled.
According to the Intermediate People’s Court of Linfen in Shanxi Province, Zhang received bribes in cash and property worth a total of 1.04 billion yuan (165 million US dollars) from 1997 to 2013.
Apart from being sentenced to death, Zhang was also deprived of all his political rights for life and all of his properties are forfeited.
The sentencing of Zhang Zhongsheng – known for his magnificent hilltop mansions and dubbed the “godfather” because of his political influence in the city of Luliang – was no surprise — since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he’d started an unprecedented crackdown on corruption.
