Sun Deshun, former president of China CITIC Bank, given death reprieve in bribery case
On November 10, 2023, the Intermediate People’s Court of Jinan City, Shandong Province publicly pronounced its verdict on Sun Deshun, the former president of China CITIC Bank, in the case of accepting bribes. The defendant Sun Deshun was sentenced to death for accepting bribes, with a two-year suspended execution, deprived of political rights for life, and sentenced to confiscation of personal rights. All property, after the two-year suspension of his death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in accordance with the law, will be imprisoned for life without commutation or parole; the proceeds from Sun Deshun’s crime of accepting bribes and their accruals will be recovered in accordance with the law and turned over to the state treasury.
After trial, it was found that from 2003 to 2019, the defendant Sun Deshun successively took advantage of his position as deputy president of the Beijing Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the president of the Beijing Branch of the Bank of Communications, and the vice president and president of China CITIC Bank to provide relevant services to relevant parties. The enterprise provided assistance in obtaining loans and other matters, and illegally received property equivalent to more than 979.5 million yuan.
The Jinan Intermediate People’s Court held that defendant Sun Deshun’s behavior constituted the crime of accepting bribes. The amount of bribes Sun Deshun accepted was particularly huge, the circumstances of the crime were particularly serious, the social impact was particularly bad, and the interests of the country and the people suffered particularly heavy losses. He should be sentenced to death if found guilty. In view of the fact that Sun Deshun truthfully confessed his crime after returning to the case, confessed and repented, and actively returned the stolen goods. All the property obtained from bribery and its interest have been seized and brought to the case. There are statutory and discretionary circumstances for lenient punishment. He was sentenced to death, but it may not be executed immediately. At the same time, based on the facts and circumstances of Sun Deshun’s crime, it was decided that after the two-year suspension of his death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment in accordance with the law, he would be imprisoned for life without commutation or parole. The court then made the above judgment.
[Editor in charge: Wang Xue]