The assistant of Mayor of Qingdao, acoastal city in east China's Shandong Province was sentenced Tuesday to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes of 4.96 million yuan (US$599,000).

In the court of first instance, Wang was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve with his political rights deprived for life and all his own property confiscated.

From May 1999 to September 2003 when holding government posts in Qindao's Laoshan District, Wang Yan accepted bribes from 14 units or individuals on 24 occasions in exchange for leasing local land property rights and local village renovation.

So far, only 370,000 yuan (US$44,700) of illicit money has been retrieved.

As principal of one of the first five illicit land leasing cases publicized by the Ministry of Land and Resources, Wang was arrested on Oct. 31, 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)