A former official from east China's Anhui Province went on trial on Wednesday morning in a Shandong Province court on bribery charges.

Proceedings against He Minxu, former vice governor of Anhui Province, began at 8:30 AM at the Intermediate People's Court of Linyi City.

He is the first high-ranking official to be tried since the conclusion of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October and the third high-level official from Anhui to be tried in Shandong.

Two other former Anhui officials have been tried in recent years on similar charges. Wang Huaizhong, a former vice-governor of Anhui, was sentenced to death in 2003 by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court. He was found guilty of taking bribes valued at 5.17 million yuan (US$623,000) between 1994 to 2001 and possessing 4.8 million yuan for which he could not account. He was given a lethal injection in February 2004.

The other was Wang Zhaoyao, former deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial CPC Committee. He was sentenced to death by the same court in Jinan with a two-year reprieve in November 2006. Wang was convicted of taking bribes amounting to 7.04 million yuan and failing to account for property worth 8.1 million yuan.

The 52-year-old He, a native of Yishui, Shandong, held many official posts. They included deputy chief of the labor bureau of Zhejiang Province, Party secretary of Lishui Prefecture, also in Zhejiang, and Party chief of Chizhou Prefecture in Anhui Province. He was promoted to Anhui deputy governor in May 2005.

The Standing Committee of Anhui Provincial People's Congress decided to remove him from the post in August 2006 out of concern He might have committed crimes. He was arrested on Sept. 28, 2006, on suspicion of taking bribes.

The People's Procuratorate of Shandong Province, which was assigned by the Supreme People's Procuratorate with the task of investigating and prosecuting He, began the investigation in September 2006. It completed an indictment in April.

The case was sent to the People's Procuratorate of Linyi City for further assessment in May.

Public prosecutors on Wednesday alleged that from 1991 to May 2006 during He's tenure in various posts, he solicited bribes totaling 8.41 million yuan from 27 organizations and individuals.

The court was told most of the bribes came from real estate developers who intended to gain favors in land requisitions and from people who sought promotion or job transfers.

He came under fire for nonperformance of duty after a mass incident in Chizhou City in June 2005, one month after he was promoted to deputy governor.

The accident, which was sparked by the beating of a pedestrian by four bus passengers, ended with the injury of many armed police officers, policemen, as well as damage to four motors vehicles, one police station and the looting of a supermarket.

It was not known how long the trial would last.

More than 67,505 government officials have been punished in China for corruption from 2003 through 2006. At least 17,505 were prosecuted and sanctioned in the first eight months of 2006 alone.

(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2007)