Court Rejects Li Ping's AppealThe Higher People's Court of Beijing Municipality issued a final ruling Thursday, turning down Li Ping's appeal and maintaining the conviction by the Beijing Intermediate People's Court.Li, the mistress of Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee and chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region who was sentenced to death for taking huge bribes, is charged of being collusive with Cheng in taking bribes and collaborating with other people in smuggling cases. On August 9, the intermediate court granted Li a life penalty, plus the confiscation of her personal properties worth 26.88 million HK dollars (one U.S. dollar equals 7.8 HK dollars) and a fine of 400,000 yuan. At the same time, the higher court also rejected an appeal from Zhang Jinghai, a Hong Kong businessman, on his convictions of collaborating with Li in the smuggling of common goods. |
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