(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –A Chinese court has jailed for life a former high-ranking intelligence official for taking bribes, coercive business deals and insider trading.
Ma Jian, previously the vice minister of the state security bureau, is one of the most senior security officials to be jailed since the former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang was ensnared in a corruption scandal and jailed for life in 2015.
“Ma Jian’s behaviour constituted the crime of accepting bribes, forcing others to trade and insider trading,” the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in Liaoning province announced in a statement on Thursday.
He was also ordered to pay more than $7.26m in penalties.
The court said Ma, who was tried behind closed doors, used his political power to aid the business operations of Guo Wengui, a real estate billionaire wanted by Chinese authorities.
The New York-based Guo has published a slew of online videos in which he makes sensational allegations of corruption in the upper echelons of China’s ruling Communist Party.
