Latest / Best of: Features / Chinese court sentenced former mayor of Wuhan city to 14 years in prison for bribery

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Chinese court sentenced former mayor of Wuhan city to 14 years in prison for bribery · Best of: Features

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  Chinese courts sentenced former mayor of Wuhan city to fourteen years in
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  prison for bribery. This article is being read by an automated voice
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  generated by Everlet. Beijing, the AP, a former mayor of a Chinese
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  city hit by the coronavirus outbreak more that, six years ago, was
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  sentenced Saturday to fourteen years in prison after being convicted of bribery.
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  While Zhou Shanwang has drawn criticism for his handling of the early
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  stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, a city in central China, the
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  court statement did not mention that, but focused on him receiving bribes.
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  The
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  court also fined him five million yuan, seven hundred forty seven thousand
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  dollars. The Shankyo Intermediate People's Court said Joe used his various positions
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  to assist others on matters such as business operations and administrative approvals
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  between two thousand three and twenty twenty five. He accepted Money and
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  Valuables Bowl totalling more than sixty point five million yuan, nine million
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  dollars. It said, adding the amount was exceptionally large. Then court decided
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  that his sentence could be reduced because he confessed to his crimes,
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  and cooperated with authorities, and most of the proceeds were recovered, it
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  said. Government anti corruption drives have become a signature policy of Chinese
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  leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in twenty twelve. Thousands
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  of officials have been purged, including high profile political rivals. Addressing allegations
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  of Wuhan's failure to disclose information early in the COVID nineteen outbreak,
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  Zhou then said that local governments are restricted from releasing information about
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  infectious diseases without authorization. In December twenty nineteen, patients began showing
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  up in Wuhan hospitals complaining of flu like symptoms, including high fever,
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  cough, and breathing difficulties. Soon after, a Chinese lab assembled a near
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  complete sequence of the virus, showing it to be similar to the
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  coronavirus that caused the two thousand two zero three SARS outbreak. The
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  lab alerted health authorities, but the information was kept under wraps. In
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  mid January, Chinese health officials said in an internal meeting that clustered
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  cases suggest human to human transmission is possible, and ordered emergency preparations
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  for a pandemic. In public, though, they downplayed the virus's ability to
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  infect. As infection spread, Wuhan was placed under a seventy six day
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  lockdown beginning january twenty third, twenty twenty.