Ma De, former secretary of the municipal committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes on Thursday.

The Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court on Thursday made the first-instance trial.

According to the court verdict, from October 1993 to February 2002, the defendant Ma took advantage of his posts as deputy mayor of Mudanjiang City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, prefectural commissioner of Suihua area, Heilongjiang Province and secretary of the municipal committee of the CPC in Suihua City to seek gains for others after accepting bribes.

Ma, himself or together with his wife Tian Yazhi who will be handled in a separate case, accepted and extorted bribes worth of 6.03 million yuan (US$743,500), including 5.586 million yuan and 55,000 US dollars. By now, all the illicit money has been recovered.

The court verdict said Ma committed the crime of bribery. The sum of bribery was big and the misdeed was very serious. But considering that Ma has confessed some bribery facts which the prosecuting bodies had not discovered and exposed the clues of other official's bribery behaviors, Ma was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and was deprived political rights all his life with the confiscation of all his personal assets.

Wang Shenyi, former deputy secretary of the municipal committee of the CPC in Suihua City, was sentenced on Thursday 15 years in prison for taking bribe at the first-instance trial by the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court.

The court verdict showed that from May 2000 to August 2002, the accused Wang took advantage of the posts as the deputy secretary of the municipal committee of the CPC in Suihua City andthe Mayor of Suihua City to reduce or exempt tax and fees for others, and allocate public funds to others, after accepting bribes totally worth 1.889 million yuan (US$232,900).

The court held that the accused Wang had committed the crime of bribery. But in view that he has confessed some clues which the prosecuting bodies had not discovered and were used by judicial organs to crack other cases, Wang was sentenced 15 years in prison and confiscated 150,000 yuan (US$18,000).

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2005)