Ex-military chief of staff sentenced to life imprisonment

A military court on Wednesday convicted Fang Fenghui, former chief of staff of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) Joint Staff Department, on three counts and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Fang was found guilty of accepting and offering bribes, as well as holding a huge amount of property from unidentified sources, according to the court ruling.

He was also deprived of his political rights for life and had his personal properties confiscated, the document said.

The illicit money and properties confiscated will be turned over to the state coffers.

Fang’s case was transferred to the military prosecution authority for suspected bribery in January 2018. At that time, soldiers and officers of the PLA supported the decision.

He had been expelled from the Communist Party of China, the People’s Liberation Army and stripped of his rank of general for seriously violating discipline and law in October 2018.

Meantime, Zhang Yang, a former CMC member and former head of the CMC Political Work Department, was also expelled from the Party for multiple violations.

The property involved in Zhang’s case will be confiscated, said a statement released by the military. The CMC had expelled Zhang from the military and stripped him of his rank.

Zhang died by suicide at his home in Beijing on November 23, 2017 after authorities launched an investigation into his alleged links to former senior military figures Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou.

A total of 440 officials at or above the provincial level have been investigated for corruption by December 2018 after China launched a high-profile anti-corruption campaign five years ago.

China is working with the international community to hunt corruption suspects who had fled overseas, which has led to the capture of 3,453 fugitives.