Former Shanghai health deputy jailed for 19 yrs

A Shanghai court sentenced a former deputy director of the city's health and family planning commission to 19 years in prison for corruption on Sunday.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Huang Fengping, 50, of taking bribes, embezzlement and possessing a huge amount of assets with unclear sources.

The court found that Huang accepted cash and gold bars worth about three million yuan (about 480,000 US dollars) from salespeople and executives from pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies when he worked as deputy head in a Shanghai hospital and head of another from 2003 to 2013.

From 2009 to 2013, when Huang headed the neurosurgery branch of Shanghai's medical association, he embezzled about 1.4 million yuan of sponsorship money for the branch's events.

Huang also failed to explain the sources of his assets worth over 11 million yuan. The court will recover all assets and fine him five million yuan.

He was arrested in December 2013 and stood trial in August 2014.