"He was sentenced today," said a spokesman at the Langfang Intermediate People's Court in the northern province of Hebei, without giving further details. The official Xinhua news agency said the 52-year-old Huang, the former deputy head of the supreme court, had been given a life sentence, his personal property confiscated and his political rights revoked for life.
Huang was convicted of taking 3.9 million yuan (570,000 dollars) in bribes from 2005 to 2008 while serving on the Supreme People's Court and of embezzling 1.2 million yuan in 1997 while serving on a lower court in the south. He had already been thrown out of the ruling Communist Party and the court ruling means he will never again be able to participate in politics or occupy official posts. Huang confessed to his crimes during the probe targeting him, and most of his ill-gotten gains had already been retrieved, Xinhua said.