Khaberni - The Chinese military court issued a death sentence with a two-year suspension for former defense ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, due to severe corruption charges.
The sentence was issued separately for each of them; Wei was convicted of accepting bribes, while Li was convicted of both accepting and offering bribes. Both men were former members of the Central Military Commission and former state advisors.
The court ruled to strip them of their political rights for life and to confiscate all their personal properties, explicitly stating that no further sentence reduction or parole would be allowed after the suspension period ends, transitioning the sentence to life imprisonment.
It is worth noting that in China, a death sentence with suspension is usually reduced to life imprisonment if the sentenced does not commit any crimes during the suspension period, meaning that in this case, both will spend the rest of their lives behind bars with no hope of release.
The investigations revealed documented crimes committed by each of them; in Li’s case, investigators found that he received "huge amounts" of bribes and also bribed others, and that he "did not perform his political duties" and sought to gain advantages in appointments for himself and others.
In Wei's case, an investigation launched in 2023 concluded that he accepted "huge amounts and valuable items" as bribes and assisted others in obtaining illegal advantages in appointments.
The actions were described by the "Xinhua Agency" as "extremely serious in nature with a profoundly harmful impact and severe damages".
These sentences come in the context of the comprehensive anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012, with the armed forces being one of his primary targets.
The purge operations in 2023 extended to the elite missile force overseeing nuclear and conventional missiles, before intensifying earlier this year and reaching a peak with the dismissal of the senior general in the People's Liberation Army, Zhang Youxia, a member of the Politburo who had long been considered a close ally to Xi.
