1st LD-Writethru: Former energy official sentenced to death with reprieve for graft
Xinhua, October 17, 2016 Adjust font size:
Wei Pengyuan, a former deputy head of the coal department of China's National Energy Administration, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Monday for accepting bribes and holding a huge amount of assets from unidentified sources.
Wei was found to have taken advantage of his posts between 2000 and 2014 to seek benefits for others, accepting bribes worth more than 211.7 million yuan (about 31.4 million U.S. dollars), according to a statement from Baoding City Intermediate People's Court in Hebei Province.
According to the statement, Wei was also found to have possessed a large amount of assets from unidentified sources, which exceeded his legal income.
After the two-year reprieve, Wei's death penalty will be commuted to life imprisonment, and no further commutation or parole will be permitted, the statement said.
All his ill-gotten assets will be confiscated, the statement added.
Wei was put under investigation in May 2014 on allegations of accepting bribes. Investigators later found he was hoarding more than 200 million yuan in cash at his home. Endi