Du Jiang, a civil servant from Wushan County, southwest China's
Chongqing Municipality, was sentenced to death with a two years'
reprieve for embezzling and misappropriating public funds set aside
for relocation in the Three Gorges Reservoir.
The ruling was handed down in a recent first-instant trial by
the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing.
In accordance with the ruling, Du was also deprived of his
political rights and stripped of all his property.
The court was told that from December 1998 to May 2004, Du,
previously chief of the farmland protection section of the Land
Resources Bureau of Wushan County, took advantage of being put in
charge of the office for land acquisition with the Wushan county
government and misappropriated 4.09 million yuan (about US$512,300)
of land acquisition compensation funds.
He worked either independently or in collaboration with other
culprits by way of forgery.
Du obtained 2.24 million yuan (US$280,000) in this crime.
In a separate case, Du was also found to have embezzled some
570,000 yuan (about US$71,000) of funds planned for land
acquisition compensation.
Six farmers were found guilty of collaborating with Du in
stealing the land acquisition funds from the state and were given
jail terms ranging from two years and a half to life.
(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2005)