A former county party chief from the eastern province of Anhui was sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court for taking bribes, Xinhua News Agency reported today.

 

Yang Jianguo, former party secretary of Hexian County Committee of the Communist Party of China, was charged with taking a bribe of around US$305,000 and receiving another US$158,000 that he couldn't justify.

 

The Hefei Intermediate People's Court has ordered him to return all the money. The court also deprived him of political rights for the rest of his life and confiscated his personal property worth US$25,000.

 

Yang was arrested in September 2005 and stood trial in June 2006. The local court found that Yang acquired the money by selling government posts and doing favors for private businesses in return for money.

 

On September 18, Hou Wujie, former party chief of northern Shanxi Province, was sentenced to 11 years in jail for taking bribes of US$110,000.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2006)