Lai Xiaomin executed for corruption after review from top court

Lai Xiaomin, former chairman of China Huarong Asset Managment Co Ltd, was executed for corruption on Friday after his death sentence was approved by the top court.

Lai was convicted of bribery, embezzlement and bigamy by a local court in Tianjin on Jan 5. The court sentenced Lai to death, deprived Lai of his political rights for life and confiscated all his assets.

Lai appealed, but the Higher People's Court of Tianjin later ruled the facts in the first trial were clear, the evidence was sufficient, the sentence appropriate and the trial was conducted per due procedures.

The court then submitted the sentence to the Supreme People's Court for review, as all death penalties in the country have to get final approval from the top court.

After review, the top court upheld the ruling. According to the verdict, Lai took undue advantage of his various posts to seek illegitimate interests for others. In return, he asked for and accepted money and gifts worth over 1.78 billion yuan ($276 million).

Lai also took advantage of his position to embezzle and extort public funds of more than 25.13 million yuan. In addition, he had been living with someone else as their husband for a long time while already having a legal spouse.

Given the fact Lai committed three crimes and the bribe amount was huge, and his behavior had severe consequences for the interests of the country and the people, he should be severely punished even though he later cooperated with the probe, the top court said in a release.

The No 2 Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin carried out the execution after receiving the opinion of the top court. Before the execution, Lai met his close relatives, according to the release.

Xinhua contributed to this story.