- Country’s first head of policing agency abused his previous positions in China to receive US$2 million in bribes between 2005 and 2017, Chinese court rules
- Meng will not appeal, state broadcaster says
The former head of the international policing agency Interpol was sentenced to 13 1/2 years in jail for corruption by a Chinese court on Tuesday, state media reported.
In a trial at Tianjin No 1 Intermediate People's Court, Meng Hongwei, the first person from China to head Interpol, was also fined 2 million yuan (about US$290,000), state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Meng said he would not appeal, the report said. It said that between 2005 and 2017 Meng had used advantages from his positions as vice-minister of public security and chief of China's maritime police to receive bribes totalling 14.46 million yuan (US$2.1 million).
"The court rules that Meng Hongwei has committed bribe-taking offences and should be punished by law," read the verdict, published online by the Supreme Court of China on Tuesday.
"The court has made the judgment after taking into consideration that Meng Hongwei has proactively turned in most information about the charges that the authorities were not able to obtain, and that he has admitted to the charges and that some of the bribes could not be retrieved."
Meng's case has been one of the most high-profile of Chinese President Xi Jinping's corruption crackdown. He was the serving president of Interpol when he was reported missing in France by his wife in October 2018.
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In Meng's previous appearance in the same court in June, he admitted using his previous positions to help companies and people make illegal gains.
More to follow …
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