Life sentence upheld for former Chinese supreme court judge convicted of corruption

Life sentence upheld for China supreme court judge

BEIJING — A court in northern China has upheld a life sentence for a former supreme court judge convicted of embezzlement and bribery, a state-run newspaper reported.

Huang Songyou, former vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, is the highest judge to be tried and convicted on such charges, part of a continuing battle by the Communist Party against deep-seated corruption.

The Hebei Province People’s High Court on Wednesday upheld the life sentence handed down by a lower court in January, the Legal Evening News reported. Huang had no reaction after the decision was announced, the newspaper said, citing lawyer Gao Zicheng.

Huang, 52, 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.

Huang was fired and expelled from the Communist Party in August. The official Xinhua News Agency has said he confessed to the charges during the investigation and that most of the bribes and embezzled funds were recovered.

The Supreme People’s Court is the highest tribunal in China with wide-ranging powers including overseeing lower courts and reviewing death sentences. Phones at the court rang unanswered Thursday.