Ex-railways minister Liu Zhijun seeks to avoid death penalty

Beleaguered former railways minister and alleged philanderer Liu Zhijun asked lawyers to help him escape the death penalty in his upcoming trial, while his wife described him as a good man who came home for dinner every night, mainland media reports said.

Lawyers Gao Zicheng and Qi Xiaohong were approached by Liu's family to defend him, The Beijing Times reported yesterday.

“He asked me to guarantee that he would not face the death penalty, but I couldn’t do that,” Liu’s family lawyer Gao Zicheng was quoted by the Beijing Times newspaper as saying.

"He wanted me to guarantee that he would escape a death penalty, which of course I could not," the newspaper quoted Gao as saying. Liu finally appointed Qian Lieyang , as designated by the authorities.

Liu has been officially charged with taking bribes and abusing power, and slated for trial at a Beijing court. State media said the amount of money involved in the case was "huge" and the circumstances "very serious", without providing further details.

Liu is accused of taking bribes worth 60 million yuan (HK$74 million) linked to rail construction projects, the paper said. Under mainland law, the death penalty can be given for accepting bribes over 100,000 yuan.