China News Service, Beijing, February 21 (Reporter Zhang Su) In 2023, disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies across the country registered a total of 17,000 people for bribery, and 3,389 people were transferred to the procuratorial organs. Focusing on how to better play the role of the procuratorial organs in punishing corruption crimes, Shi Weizhong, deputy ministerial-level full-time member of the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China and director of the Third Procuratorate, responded on the 21st.
He said that the procuratorial organs will continue to promote the investigation of bribery and bribery, increase the punishment of bribery crimes, strengthen the recovery and correction of improper benefits obtained from bribery, and will actively participate in corruption issues in key fields such as finance, state-owned enterprises, energy, medicine, and infrastructure projects. Remediation.
On the same day, the Supreme People's Procuratorate also released 9 typical cases of procuratorial organs performing their duties with high quality and efficiency, including the "Xu Guojun Corruption and Misappropriation of Public Funds Case." Xu Guojun was the former president of the Kaiping Branch of the Bank of China. He fled abroad in 2001 and was forcibly deported back to China in 2021.
After trial, it was found that from 1993 to 2001, the defendant Xu Guojun took advantage of his position, colluded with Xu Chaofan, Yu Zhendong (both of whom served as presidents of the Bank of China in Kaiping, and have been sentenced) and others to obtain bank funds by applying for false loans. By occupying the company's normal loan repayment funds or direct transfers, the total amount of embezzled public funds was equivalent to more than 900 million yuan, and the total amount of misappropriation of public funds was equivalent to more than 1.4 billion yuan. In the end, the court decided to impose a life sentence on him, deprive him of political rights for life, confiscate all his personal property, and recover the criminal proceeds and their interest.
When the Supreme People's Procuratorate released the case this time, it was revealed that Xu Guojun had always stressed that he had surrendered and requested that his time served abroad should be commuted to his sentence. The prosecutor went to the detention center many times to explain the law to him, helping him understand the principle of judicial sovereignty and Chinese legal provisions, fully understand the illegality and harmfulness of his behavior, and encourage him to let go of his ideological burden. The prosecutor also helped him apply for legal aid and effectively protected his legitimate rights and interests. Xu Guojun pleaded guilty and accepted punishment during the trial. After the first-instance verdict was announced, he stated that he would obey the verdict and would not appeal.
Talking about the next step of handling anti-corruption, fugitive and illicit recovery and cross-border corruption crime cases in accordance with the law, Shi Weizhong said that for those who have been hiding abroad for a long time, we will promote the application of illegal income confiscation procedures and absentee trial procedures in accordance with the law. In addition, the procuratorial organs will work with relevant departments to study and formulate procedural regulations for absentee trials and confiscation of illegal gains, and standardize foreign-related investigations and evidence collection. (over)