Chinese official gets death sentence

By the BBC's Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai

A Chinese court has sentenced the country's former deputy minister of police to death, suspended for two years.

The official, Li Jizhou, was found guilty of taking bribes and abusing his authority.

He is the highest-ranking official yet to be sentenced in connection with a multi-billion dollar smuggling scandal in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen - which has already led to the execution of at least seven people.

The smuggling scandal in the city has shaken the Chinese authorities - and the involvement of Li Jizhou is one of the most embarrassing aspects of the case.

Mr Li was supposed to be in charge of a high profile, nationwide campaign against smuggling. But a Beijing court found that he had taken more than $100,000 from Lai Changxing, who is accused of being the ring leader of a gang which smuggled more than $6bn worth of oil and other goods into China.

Mr Li's wife was also sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for bribery.

Unlikely to die

Yet while the sentences are a sign that China's anti-corruption campaign is continuing, the fact that Mr Li's death penalty was suspended means It is unlikely to be carried out.

The court said he was given a reprieve because he provided information to prosecutors and returned some of the bribes he had taken. Yet since a number of local officials involved in the Xiamen scandal have already been executed, the suspended sentence given to Mr Li may reinforce the impression that more senior officials are still more likely to avoid the ultimate punishment.

It follows a recent corruption case in the north-eastern city of Shenyang, in which a deputy mayor was sentenced to death, while the city's mayor was given a suspended sentence.

The man accused of being the main suspect in the Xiamen case, Lai Changxing, remains in Canada, where he is seeking to avoid extradition back to China by arguing that he would not receive a fair trial. Mr Lai has claimed that he was a patriot who ran a spy ring on China's behalf in Taiwan.