A former deputy environment minister in China has been sentenced to four years behind bars for taking 2.4 million yuan (HK$2.7 million) in bribes.
Zhang Lijun, who served as deputy minister for environmental protection from 2008 to 2013, was handed his jail term at a public sentencing by the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court on Wednesday, according to the court’s official microblog. He also received a fine of 500,000 yuan.
The court said Zhang had provided help to grant approval for products and projects, plus aided people in securing jobs in exchange for bribes during his time at the ministry between 1998 to 2013.
He was given a lighter sentence because he had confessed his crimes and handed over all his ill-gotten gains, the court said.
The Communist Party’s anti-graft agency started an investigation into Zhang’s affairs in July last year. He was the first senior official working in environmental protection to be caught under a huge government anticorruption campaign.
