Former Inner Mongolia senior political advisor gets life sentence for bribery

A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced Ma Ming, a former senior political adviser in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to life in prison for bribery.

Ma Ming, former vice chairman of the Inner Mongolia regional committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was deprived of political rights for life, according to the intermediate people's court of the city of Zibo in east China's Shandong Province.

The court found that Ma took advantage of various positions in Jilin Province and Inner Mongolia from 2000 to 2019 to seek benefits for others regarding business operations, job promotions and case handling.

Ma was convicted of taking bribes amounting to over 157.85 million yuan (about 24.93 million US dollars) in both money and valuables.

All of Ma's personal property was confiscated and the illegal gains from bribery were recovered and turned over to the state treasury, said the court.

It said Ma's case involved a particularly large amount of bribes and numerous instances over a long period of time, but he was given a lenient sentence because he confessed his offenses, showed remorse, provided additional information about his and others' offenses, and returned all his illegal gains.