Former top health official in China gets 19 years prison - media

15/02/2015 - 8:19

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The former deputy health commission chief in the Chinese city of Shanghai has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after being found guilty of taking bribes, corruption and embezzlement, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Huang Fengping, formerly second-in-command of the city's Commission of Health and Family Planning, was arrested in December 2013 amid a government crackdown on corruption in the health service.

Xinhua, quoting the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court, said Huang was found to have embezzled 70,000 yuan ($11,200) of public property and taken monetary bribes amounting to 3.1 million yuan. The 50-year-old also used his position to do favours for others, it said.

In September, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc was fined a record 3 billion yuan for paying bribes to doctors to use its drugs.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Robert Birsel)