A former vice president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) was today sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting over USD 16 million bribe, becoming the first top judge to be caught in the massive anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping.
The Secondary Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin Municipality, north China, handed down the sentence and also stripped Xi Xiaoming, 62, of his political rights for life.
All his personal property and wealth will be confiscated, according to the court.
The court found that from 1996 to 2015, Xi took advantage of various official positions in the SPC to offer favors to entities and individuals in the handling of cases and company listings, accepting bribes worth about 114.6 million yuan (about USD 16.63 million) either personally or through his family.
The court ruled the property and wealth amassed by Xi through bribery will be turned over to the state.
Xi accepted the verdict, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
He is the first top judge to be caught in the massive anti-corruption campaign launched by Chinese President Xi in which thousands of officials were punished in the last four years.
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