1st LD-Writethru: Forty-nine corruption suspects brought back by Chinese prosecutors

A total of 49 fugitive suspects of corruption and other duty-related crimes were returned to China from overseas by prosecutors nationwide in 2014, an official of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Monday.

Xu Jinhui, the SPP's anti-bribery head, told a press conference the fugitives were persuaded back or arrested from 17 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain and Canada.

Among them, 16 cases involved more than one million yuan (about 160,771 U.S. dollars) and four involved more than ten million yuan, according to Xu.

Of the 49 suspects, three had been on the run for more than a decade including one for 23 years, he said.

A suspect, surnamed Zheng, former deputy head of a subbranch of the Harbin Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, fled to Russia after embezzling 600,000 yuan in 1990. Zheng was arrested on Dec. 10, 2014 through cooperation between procuratorate and public security department of Heilongjiang Province, according to Xu.

Xu said that 36 suspects turned themselves in due to persuasion by family members or significant contacts, accounting for 73.5 percent.

A bribery suspect, surnamed Zhang, was persuaded back by her husband, former head of Jilin Provincial Office of State Administration of Taxation, who had been under investigation for bribery, and returned 35 million yuan that had been transferred to the U.S.

Xu urged suspects of duty-related crimes who are still at large to make the right choice.

The SPP launched a half-year campaign targeting fugitive suspects of corruption and other duty-related crimes, which started from October. Endite