SUPREME COURT JUDGE SENT TO JAIL
BEIJING: A former Chinese Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday following his conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes.
One-time court vice president Huang Songyou is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and convicted on such charges, part of a continuing battle by the Communist Party against deep-seated corruption.
Formally known as the Supreme People's Court, the body is the highest judicial panel in China with wide-ranging powers including overseeing lower courts and automatically reviewing all death sentences. The court has 13 members, with its grand justice also sitting on the party's decision-making Central Committee.
Huang's entire property also was confiscated as part of the ruling, according to a brief report by the official China News Service.
Huang was accused of taking 3.9 million yuan ($574,000) in bribes from a law firm in return for favorable rulings on cases between 2005 and 2008.
He was also charged with embezzling 1.2 million yuan ($176,000) in government funds while serving as president of a city level court in the southern province of Guangdong in 1997.
SOURCE: THE TIMES OF INDIA
DATE: 19.01.2010
