Missing since September 2018, Meng Hongwei, the former Chinese boss of Interpol, was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison for corruption, Chinese justice announced on Tuesday.
Meng Hongwei was also fined 2 million yuan (about 260,000 euros), said the No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in Tianjin (north). The court clarified that Meng Hongwei accepted the verdict and would not appeal.
Meg Hongwei suspended from all official functions
Meng Hongwei suddenly disappeared from Interpol in September 2018, giving no news after leaving Lyon, where the headquarters of the international police organization are located. After ten days, Beijing had announced that it had returned to China where it had been detained on suspicion of corruption.
Meng Hongwei was expelled in March 2019 from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and from any official office. The court released several photos showing Meng Hongwei in the courtroom, surrounded by two police officers, drawn features and bleached hair.
Nearly 1.5 million Chinese Communist Party officials punished
Meng Hongwei is the umpteenth senior Communist leader to succumb to the anti-corruption campaign launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping shortly after he came to power. It has already sanctioned at least 1.5 million CCP executives, according to official figures.
Very popular with a public opinion tired of embezzlement, this “clean hands” operation is also suspected of being used to bring down internal opponents to the line of the Chinese head of state. Meng Hongwei's wife and two children were granted political asylum in France in early May, according to their lawyer. His wife claimed to have been the victim of an abduction attempt.
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- China
- Disappearance
- Corruption
- World
- Investigation
- Jail
- Interpol