Top aide to former Chinese president gets life sentence

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) - A Chinese official who served as a top aide to former President Hu Jintao was handed a life sentence Monday.

State news agency Xinhua reported that Ling Jihua pleaded guilty to accepting bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power and did not appeal the decision of a court in northern Tianjin city.

Ling, a 59-year-old former vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, was accused of accepting bribes worth more than 77.08 million yuan ($11.6 million) personally and through family members and placed under investigation in Dec. 2014.

"I accept all the charges and submit to the judgment," he said in his final statement Monday. "Today's trial will be engraved in my memory."

Last year, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that he also allegedly exchanged his power for sex and had affairs with several women.

It also cited media as saying that Ling, who hails from China’s coal-rich northern province of Shanxi, led the so-called Shanxi Gang.

Ling had a successful political career until being demoted after his son Ling Gu was killed in a high-profile Ferrari accident that left two young women passengers seriously injured in Beijing in 2012.

Before the incident, Ling had served as the chief of the party Central Committee’s General Office and as Hu’s personal secretary.

In 2013, President Xi Jinping launched an anti-corruption campaign that has investigated tens of thousands of suspects, including dozens of high-profile individuals at the top of the Communist Party.