Former airport chief given death sentence
Li Peiying, the former head of Beijing Capital International Airport, has been sentenced to death by the People's Court in Shandong for taking 26.61 million yuan (HK$30.18 million) in bribes from 1995 to 2003.
From January 1995 to November 2003, Li was the assistant general manager, president and general manager of Capital Airports Holding, as well as chairman of Beijing Airport.
He was found guilty of receiving bribes from related parties to help arrange unauthorised investments and providing guarantees for bank loans, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
Li committed fraud in appropriating 82.5 million yuan from the company from 2000 to 2003, although he subsequently returned the money, the court said.
It was the second death sentence handed down to a senior official from the aviation industry in six months.
In August, Chen Liming, the former group financial director of China Southern Air Holding, the parent of China Southern Airlines, was sentenced to death with a two-year probation. This often means the sentence is reduced to life imprisonment after two years.
Chen was accused of receiving 53.66 million yuan in bribes and embezzling 1.2 billion yuan from the company.
The Shandong court said the amount of money in Li's case was particularly large and caused the country significant economic damage. Since Li repaid all the money, the court said the death sentence would not be executed with immediate effect but was not more specific.
'In the midst of consecutive promotions, Li Peiying favoured the pursuit of low-class enjoyment such as gambling through corrupted money while ignoring the responsibility of a communist,' Xinhua said.
Since Li's illegal actions ended in 2003, before the construction of Terminal 3 at Beijing Airport, investment activities surrounding Terminal 3 were not implicated in the case, said an official from Beijing Airport.
