Beijing vice mayor's death sentence upheld

A second hearing has rejected Beijing former vice mayor Liu Zhuhua’s appeal and upheld the suspended death sentence against him for corruption, state media reported. The Provincial Higher People’s Court of Hebei on Wednesday affirmed the original sentence handed down by the Hengshui Intermediate People’s Court in October last year. Liu, 59, was convicted of accepting US$1 million in bribes between 1999 and 2006 while he was Beijing’s vice mayor and director of the Zhongguancun Science Park management committee. He was given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve.