(LIU QUANLONG)

Huang Songyou, former Vice President of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption on January 19.

Huang, 52, was convicted of taking more than 3.9 million yuan ($574,000) in bribes from 2005 to 2008 during his tenure as SPC vice president, said the Intermediate People's Court of Langfang, north China's Hebei Province. He was also found to have embezzled 1.2 million yuan ($177,000) of public funds in 1997, when he was president of the Intermediate People's Court of Zhanjiang, south China's Guangdong Province, the court ruling said.

Huang is the first chief judge to have been prosecuted on corruption charges in the history of the SPC, China's highest judicial organ.