CHENGDU, May 8 (Xinhua) — Lu Kehua, previously a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official in charge of political and legal work in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Friday after being convicted of taking bribes by a court in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The Luzhou Intermediate People’s Court handed down the verdict in the first-instance trial of Lu, formerly the secretary of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs and a member of the Standing Committee of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the CPC. Lu will also be deprived of political rights for life, and all his personal property will be confiscated.
The court further ordered that all bribes and their illegal proceeds already recovered should be turned over to the state treasury.
According to the court investigation, between 1997 and 2024, Lu exploited his various positions, including roles at the former Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, as vice mayor of Chongqing, and as head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the CPC, to secure advantages for others in matters including project contracting, project evaluations and qualification reviews. In return, he illegally accepted money and gifts totaling more than 189 million yuan (about 27.59 million U.S. dollars). The court ruled that Lu’s actions constituted the crime of bribery.
The court had previously held a public hearing on Jan. 15, 2026, during which Lu pleaded guilty and expressed his remorse in a final statement. ■