CORRUPT CHINA PROSECUTOR GETS SUSPENDED DEATH PENALTY

a Chinese court handed down a suspended death sentence to a former top prosecutor in the northern port city of Tianjin for taking bribes and embezzlement, Xinhua news agency said. Li Baojin was convicted of receiving $762,900 in bribes between 1996 and 2006 in exchange for official favours granted to companies and individuals, the report said. The Cangzhou Intermediate People's Court in the neighbouring province of Hebei also found him guilty of embezzling $1.90 million of public funds, it said. Li deserved a harsh sentence because he actively sought bribes, but his "good attitude" in confessing the crimes and the recovery of the money won him a two-year reprieve from the death penalty, Xinhua said. Li's case is part of an inquiry in Tianjin that also felled his one-time superior and the city's former police chief Song Pingshun, who died in a suspicious suicide in June 2007 when being probed for corruption involving a mistress.