Cheng Kejie, 66, former vice-chairman of the body that...

Cheng Kejie, 66, former vice-chairman of the body that runs China's parliament was executed by the Intermediate People's Court of Beijing, after the confirmation and approval by China's Supreme People's Court of his death sentence. Cheng was condemned on July 31 in a televised trial after being found guilty of taking £3 million in bribes when he was government chief of the South western region of Gungaxi to fund a life of lavish spending with his mistress, Li Ping, who gave evidence against her lover and was therefore sentenced to life in prison rather than execution . The Beijing Higher People's Court rejected Cheng Kejie's appeal on August 22. As former deputy chairman of the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, Cheng earned the dubious distinction of being the highest-level official executed for corruption since the founding of the communist state in 1949.