CHINA SPELLS OUT CRITERIA TO APPLY DEATH PENALTY IN GRAFT CASES

April 18, 2016: The death penalty will be applicable to corrupt leaders who embezzle funds or accept bribes of over $463,000, China’s Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Prosecutor’s Office, the country’s highest judicial authorities, ruled.
The measure, which enters into immediate effect, aims to clarify the last revision of the Penal Code at the end of 2015, which did not stipulate the exact quantities for which the death penalty could be applied and left the final decision on the discretion of the judges.
The two bodies say in case the accused cooperates in the investigation and confesses to the crime or returns the embezzled amount, the death penalty could be suspended for two years, which for all practical purposes, amounts to a commutation of the sentence to life imprisonment, which is the most common punishment in graft cases in China.
The punishment for corruption were amended towards the end of 2015 on grounds that the embezzled sums punishable with life sentences or death penalty were too low.
However, the 2015 amendment eliminated references to exact figures and spoke instead of the death penalty for “very large sums of money,” a subjective criteria, which the two authorities have now decided to revise in order to avoid confusion.
The new regulation also warns that senior officials can be tried for complicity if they do not report corrupt practices of their close colleagues, including family members.
At the same time, it stresses that donation of money to charity or other public causes will not be considered exculpatory in hypothetical trials for corruption.
Since President Xi Jinping formally took office three years ago, the Chinese government has spearheaded an aggressive anti-corruption campaign, spread across all sectors and including the army, which had previously been untouchable, and which has resulted in dozens of dismissals and expulsions from the Communist Party, and investigations, trials and sentences against national or former leaders at all levels. (Sources: EFE, 18/04/2016)