Chinese state firm boss accused of stashing tonne of stolen gold, silver at his home has death sentence overturned
The former head of a state-owned gold and silver refinery in China, who allegedly had more than a tonne of stolen precious metals stashed at his home, has had his death sentence for corruption overturned, according to a newspaper report.
The Supreme People’s Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to support Song Wendai’s convictions, the Beijing Times reported.
The court has ordered a retrial, the report said.
Song, 53, was sentenced to death four years ago for taking bribes and embezzling public funds totalling 85 million yuan (HK$103 million).
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He was the former chairman of the Qiankun gold and silver refinery in Inner Mongolia.
Prosecutors seized 2.7 million yuan in cash, 134 kg of gold, 995.3 kg of silver, 81 grams of platinum, four houses and four vehicles from Song, the news website People.cn reported in 2012.
The state-run news agency Xinhua were quoted as saying that Song hid his stolen gold in a car parked in the underground garage of his Beijing home, the report said.
He appealed against his sentence two years ago, but it was upheld by the Inner Mongolia High People’s Court.
READ MORE: China’s top judge says nation must learn from innocent man’s execution
The Supreme People’s Court found that among the charges there was not enough evidence to prove Song had embezzled 10 million yuan as capital to register his own company or that he made a further illegal gain of 17 million yuan in property transactions, the Beijing Times said.
His lawyer said Song had literally been hoping for the annulment of his death penalty every morning since he lost his appeal two years ago as executions were often announced at 6 am.
The report did not say when the retrial would take place.
