(Refiles to add missing phrase, correct typo in paragraph 1)
BEIJING (Reuters) -Wu Yingjie, a former Communist Party chief of China’s Tibet region who was sanctioned by the United States and Canada over alleged human rights violations, was given a suspended death sentence, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
A court in Beijing on Wednesday sentenced Wu, also a former member of China’s top political advisory body, to death with a two-year reprieve, Xinhua said, noting that all of his ill-gotten gains would be confiscated.
That means the death sentence will only be carried out if he commits further crimes during the period of reprieve. Otherwise, he will face a life sentence after two years.
Reuters could not reach Wu for comment.
While serving a variety of roles in Tibet’s Communist Party committee and government between 2006 and 2021, Wu had accepted bribes amounting to more than 343 million yuan ($47.78 million), the report said.
Wu, 68, spent most of his career in Tibet, having worked in a farm, a power plant and the region’s education department, public information shows.
He became a member of Tibet’s party committee in 2006, and rose to the position of party chief 10 years later.
In 2021, Wu was removed from the Tibet Communist Party committee post and assumed a position in the education, science, culture and health committee of China’s top legislature.
Wu was one of two Chinese officials sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2022 over accusations of human rights abuses in Tibet.
The Treasury alleged that Wu directed policies that involved abuses including “extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions.”
China’s foreign ministry said the sanctions were illegal and harmed Sino-U.S. ties, and urged the U.S. to withdraw them.
In December 2024, Canada also sanctioned Wu over alleged human rights violations, a move that China condemned.
A probe into Wu’s suspected discipline and law violations – a phrase commonly used to refer to corruption – was announced by China’s anti-graft watchdog in June 2024.
($1 = 7.1781 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Kim Coghill)
