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A Chinese billionaire with a real estate business who criticized the way President Xi Jinping handled the crisis triggered by the novel coronavirus was sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption, writes CNN. He had been missing since March after publishing a critical essay on Jinping.
A Beijing court found Ren Zhiqiang guilty of embezzlement (more than $ 16 million), bribery, abuse of power to the detriment of more than $ 17 million in a state-owned company he ran, according to CNN.
The judges sentenced him to 18 years in prison and fined him $ 620,000. The court said that the defendant “voluntarily admitted the accusations” and that “he accepted the verdict of the court after fully recovering the damage caused.”
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of around 99 percent, according to independent observers, CNN reports. Accusations of corruption are more common in the case of close former members of the communist regime, who fall out of favor.
Ren Zhiqiang’s sentence and severe punishment appear to send a message to other members of the Chinese elite that criticism of President Xi Jinping will not be tolerated.
Ren Zhiqiang, a 69-year-old billionaire retired from business, earned the nickname “Cannon” for his incisive and critical attitude towards the Chinese authorities. In March, he wrote an essay in which, without directly naming him, he played President Xi Jinping.
“I have not seen an emperor show himself The new clothesbut a clown who took off his clothes and kept insisting that he is emperor, ”wrote Ren.
Shortly after the essay was published, the billionaire disappeared.
