China city party chief gets life in jail for taking bribes -state media

BEIJING (Reuters) -A Chinese court has sentenced a former Communist Party secretary of eastern Hangzhou to life in prison, with state media saying he had been found guilty of taking more than 182 million yuan ($25.48 million) in bribes.

The sentencing of Zhou Jiangyong, the former party chief of the city southwest of Shanghai which is home to Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Ant Group, was made public at a court in Chuzhou, in eastern Anhui province, on Tuesday, CCTV news said.

Zhou was found to have personally or through his relatives taken bribes in cities and counties in Zhejiang province between 2001 and 2021 in return for aiding deals such as one related to construction and land acquisition. CCTV did not name any other parties involved.

Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang.

He was handed a suspended death sentence that will be commuted to life imprisonment after two years.

Zhou was first announced to have been placed under investigation for "serious violations of discipline and laws" in August 2021.

Zhou was expelled from the party and removed from the post a few months later.

Zhou "supported the disorderly expansion of capital", "illegally accepted huge amounts of property in collaboration with relatives" and "engaged in familial corruption", the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said while announcing the expulsion.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Nick Macfie)