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China's ex-drug chief executed
10/07/2007 09:42 - (SA)
Beijing - The former head of China's food and drug watchdog was executed on Tuesday after being found guilty of corruption, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, the former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration, was executed on Tuesday morning, following the approval of China's Supreme People's Court, Xinhua said.
Zheng was sentenced to death in late May after being found guilty of accepting 6.5 million yuan (R6m) in bribes in exchange for granting approvals for hundreds of medicines, some of which proved dangerous.
His execution comes ahead of the Communist Party's five-yearly Congress expected to be held in or around October. The showpiece political event is typically preceded by official campaigns against corruption within party ranks.
A Beijing court had previously cited the "great danger" caused to the country by Zheng, director of the administration until 2005, in meting out the harsh sentence.
Zheng subsequently entered an appeal for leniency on June 12, calling the sentence "too severe" and saying he had confessed his crimes and co-operated with investigators, Xinhua said.
The appeal was rejected on June 22, it said.
- AFP
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