Ma Gongyuan, former general manager of Shenzhen City Subway Co. Ltd. of Guangdong Province, was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes including accepting bribes.

In accordance with the ruling, handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen City in a second-instance trial last Thursday, Ma was deprived of his political rights for life and stripped of all his personal property.

The court was told that from the latter half of 1994 to the first half of 1996, Ma abused his power and took bribes totaling 2.41 million yuan (US$ 290,362) when he was manager of Shenzhen City Civil Works Engineering Company, managing director and general manager of Tianjian Shareholding Co. Ltd. of Shenzhen City, and Party secretary of the committee of Tianjian Shareholding Co. Ltd..

Ma was also found to conceal over 2.55 million Hong Kong dollars and US$207,000 in deposit savings with overseas banks.

The court verdict concluded that Ma, who was sent to work in units including non-public companies as a representative of the public interest, committed a crime by taking advantage of the power in his hand to pursue benefits on others' behalf by way of asking for and accepting bribes from them.

Ma also failed to report as stipulated his huge deposit savings with overseas banks and had thus committed a crime of concealing deposit savings with overseas banks.

In the first-instance trial on July 30, 2003, Ma was given by the same court a 16-year jail term, said court sources.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2004)