A police chief in the northeastern Chinese city of Mudanjiang was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday for bribery, abuse of power, and possessing unidentified property.

All of the personal property of 60-year-old Han Jian, former director of the Mudanjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau, were ordered confiscated, according to a verdict by the Harbin Municipal Intermediate People's Court at the first instance in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Han was found to have taken a total of 980,000 yuan (US$121,746) in cash and other kinds of bribes during the 1994-2004 period, when he had worked as director of the Vehicle Management Department under the Heilongjiang Provincial Traffic Police Corps and later director of the Mudanjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau.

In 2001 and 2002, Han paid out graft totaling 110,000 yuan (US$13,665) to Han Guizhi, then deputy secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of Communist Party of China, for the latter to help promote him to police chief in Mudanjiang in June 2000.

Han was also found to possess a huge property worth 21.5 million yuan(US$2.67 million), with another 4.34 million yuan (US$539,164) of interest, the source of which Han couldn't account for, the court verdict said.

Han Guizhi, later chairwoman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on December 15 last year for accepting huge bribes worth 7.02 million yuan (US$875,000) in the 1993-2003 period, according to the ruling by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2006)