• Interpol president Meng Hongwei passed away in China since 29 September. "It is under investigation"

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January 21, 2020 He would have obtained personal favors and favored his friends. Former Chinese deputy minister of public security, Meng Hongwei will have to serve 13 years and six months in prison on charges of corruption. The Xinhua agency reports.

The ruling was handed down by the Tianjin Intermediate People's Court in northeastern China, where the trial against him was held last June.

The facts date back between 2005 and 2017, when he held the position of deputy minister of public security in China and director of the Chinese maritime police office. According to today's ruling, Meng abused his position to have personal advantages and benefits for friends. He will have to pay a fine of two million yuan, or 261 thousand euros. The defendant, the Chinese media report, has pleaded guilty and will not appeal. Meng had been formally arrested in April 2019 and the month before had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and deprived of all public office.

The affair had attracted international interest in October 2018, when he was head of Interpol and disappeared following a trip to China from Lyon, where the international police cooperation organization is based. Meng resigned from the position he held since November 2016, a few days after returning to China, according to what was communicated by Interpol itself. After his disappearance, his wife, Grace Meng, had given interviews to foreign media, stating that he had received threats from people who spoke in Chinese, and that he feared for his own safety and that of his children. Last year, the woman had obtained political asylum in France.