A local court of east China's Shandong Province has handed down a death penalty with a two-year reprieve to He Minxu, former vice- governor of eastern Anhui Province, for taking huge bribes.

The Intermediate People's Court of Linyi City also deprived He of his political rights for life, and ordered confiscation of all He's personal property.

The court found that from 1991 to May 2006 during He's tenure in various posts, he accepted and solicited bribes totaling 8.41 million yuan (US$1.12 million) from 27 organizations and individuals.

Court sources said it issued the suspended death sentence because "He had taken the initiative to confess his crimes".

The court was told He was quite cooperative during the investigation. He turned in bribes totaling 4.38 million yuan (US$584,000), and exposed others who were involved in misconduct. They were later proved to have committed major crimes.

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 vice-governor in May 2005.

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 for corruption.

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 (US$640,000) for which he could not account. He was given a lethal injection in February 2004.

Wang Zhaoyao, former deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial CPC Committee was sentenced to death by the same court with a two-year reprieve in January.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2007)