'Brother Watch' official with expensive taste gets 14 years' jail for graft
Shaanxi official Yang Dacai, whose love for costly timepieces proved his undoing, is jailed for 14 years for acquiring unexplained fortune
A former Shaanxi official was sentenced yesterday to 14 years in prison for corruption, in a case that started when outraged internet users posted photos of his expensive watches.
For the bribery conviction, Yang, 56, was sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined 50,000 yuan. He received an additional six-year prison term for amassing unexplained wealth, which his family must forfeit.
The court decided to shorten the combined prison term to 14 years. Yang did not appeal against the verdict.
The sentence came six days after Yang pleaded guilty to the charges. Yang said after the sentencing that after decades of hard work, he had turned to crime but now sought a fresh beginning, Xinhua reported.
"It is useless to repent after falling into the abyss of crime, but I sincerely want to confess and regret the crime I committed, and beg the court to give me a brand new start in life," he said.
Yang was removed from his post in September after a picture of him grinning at the scene of a bus crash that killed 36 people circulated online and aroused public indignation. He later said he only smiled in an attempt to comfort his colleagues who were under stress in the aftermath of the accident.
But sharp-eyed internet users noticed Yang's penchant for wearing expensive watches and dug up photos of him wearing at least 11 different luxury watches on various occasions.
Yang's habit earned him the nickname "Brother Watch".
Yang claimed that he bought the watches with his own salary and that some of the watches were borrowed from his son. An investigation found that he "seriously violated the party's discipline rules".
During a one-day trial last week, prosecutors told the court that Yang's huge fortune was far beyond the possible income of a public servant at his level, who would normally be paid a monthly salary of a few thousand yuan.
The five million yuan in unexplained funds "probably" came from "presents from junior officials and old school friends during festivals", Yang said previously, mainland media reported.
Social media have become major platforms contributing to the downfall of corrupt officials on the mainland.
A number of officials have been punished after online exposure of their wrongdoings.
Among them are Lei Zhengfu , a district-level party chief in Chongqing , and Shan Zengde , a deputy chief in charge of Shandong's agricultural industry.
Both were sacked after being exposed online for sex-related scandals.
