Han Guizhi, former chairwoman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve Thursday for accepting huge bribes.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court read out the court verdict at the first instance Thursday.

According to the court verdict, from 1993 to 2003, Han accepted bribes worth 7.02 million yuan (US$875,000) from many officials, including Ma De, former secretary of the municipal committee of the CPC in Suihua City of northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

After accepting bribes, Han took advantage of her posts as vice director and director of the Organization Department of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the CPC, and deputy secretary of the Provincial Committee of the CPC, to promote or readjust posts for officials who had offered bribes.

All the illicit money and bribes have been recovered, the court said.

Han could be sentenced to death with immediate execution according to the amount of the bribes she accepted.

However, given that Han has confessed some bribery cases which the prosecuting bodies had not discovered, and candidly confessed all the crimes she committed and returned all the bribes, she was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and was deprived of political rights forever, in addition to the confiscation of all personal assets.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2005)