Ex-sports minister sentenced for graft

Former sports minister Gou Zhongwen was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes and abusing his power, a court in Jiangsu province announced on Monday.

The Yancheng Intermediate People's Court said Gou accepted more than 236 million yuan ($33.4 million) in bribes between 2009 and 2024. According to the ruling, he used his various positions over those years to seek benefits for departments and individuals in business operations and project approvals.

Gou, 68, was also stripped of his political rights for life, and all his personal assets were confiscated.

Separately, the court sentenced him to five years in prison for abuse of power. It said that from 2012 to 2013, while serving as a vice-mayor of Beijing, he abused his authority during the acquisition of a related project, leading to significant losses of public assets and harming the interests of the State and the public.

The court combined the penalties for both crimes and imposed a suspended death sentence, ordering all illicit gains and related interest transferred to the State treasury.

It said Gou's crimes warranted the death penalty because the bribes were "extremely large", the circumstances "extremely severe", the social impact "extremely negative", and the losses to State and public interests "extremely significant".

However, the court said it considered leniency because Gou confessed, disclosed bribes not yet known to investigators, returned his illicit gains, and made unsuccessful attempts at bribery.

In China, a suspended death sentence is typically commuted to life imprisonment if no new crimes are committed during the two-year probation period, and the life term can later be reduced for good behavior. But the court ruled that Gou will not be eligible for further sentence reductions or parole because of the severity of his offenses and their social impact — meaning he will spend the rest of his life in prison if the sentence is commuted.

A native of Gansu province, Gou began working in 1974 and joined the Communist Party of China in 1976. He became a vice-mayor of Beijing in 2008 and served as head of the General Administration of Sport from 2016 to July 2022. During that period, he was also executive chairman of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee and chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

He later served on the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as deputy head of its Committee on Ethnic and Religious Affairs.

Gou was placed under investigation in May 2024 before being expelled from the Party and removed from public office. He was indicted this year on charges of bribery and abuse of power. The court held a public hearing on Aug 20.