Former Gansu official receives bribery sentence

Song Liang, former vice-governor of Northwest China's Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for bribery by the Intermediate People's Court in Leshan, Sichuan province, on Tuesday.

The court also stripped Song of all political rights and confiscated his personal property, adding his illicit gains and relevant evidence in the case have been taken to the State treasury.

From 2000 to 2020, Song took advantage of positions he held to seek unjustified gains for others by providing aid for them in small loan company registration, village bank establishment, business operation and personnel promotion, according to the court.

Prior to his tenure as vice-governor of Gansu, he held multiple posts in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The court said Song accepted more than 79.68 million yuan ($11.5 million) in cash, equity and real estate after aiding the parties concerned, of which equities worth 2.12 million yuan were not given to him at the end, the court said.

"Song's behavior constituted the crime of bribery, and the amount of the bribes he took was extremely large, so he should be harshly punished," the court added. "But considering he confessed to the crime and revealed many bribes of which investigators were not previously aware, we penalized him leniently."

Song, 58, a native of Hebei province, graduated from Inner Mongolia University and started his career in 1985. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1990.

Before he became vice-governor of Gansu in 2017, he worked in several posts in the autonomous region, such as director of the regional government's financial departments, Party secretary of Wuhai city and Party secretary of Tongliao city.

He was placed under investigation in February last year for suspected violations of discipline and law. Later, he was removed from Party and office.

In October last year, he was charged with the crime of bribery, and in February the court publicly heard the case.