Former publicity official jailed 14 years for bribery

Lu Wei, former Cyberspace Administration of China head, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery on Tuesday at a court in Zhejiang province.

Lu, also ex-deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was fined 3 million yuan ($446,887), according to the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court's judgement.

The bribes he accepted and gains from such were ordered to be repaid to the state treasury.

Lu will not appeal to a higher court.

From 2002-2017 Lu exploited work positions – which also included Xinhua News deputy head and Beijing vice-mayor – to offer illegal aid to other departments and individuals in their promotion, network governance and businesses, in return for benefits, the court said.

The total amount of bribes he accepted was more than 32 million yuan, the court said.

"Given that Lu's behavior represented bribery and the amount was huge, he should be punished in line with the law," the court said in the ruling.

"But because he confessed to some facts that investigators had no idea of and also took the initiative to turn over the illicit money, we leniently punished him and made the judgement," the court said.