Tianjin (China): A court in China's Tianjin province on Friday sentenced a former provincial Communist Party chief to 18 months in jail for accepting bribe and abusing power.

The Intermediate People's Court in Tianjin also confiscated 300,000 yuan (about $42,860) from the possession of former Shanghai Communist Party Chief Chen Liangyu, who was also a former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

According to the court, between 1988 and 2006, Chen took advantage of his positions as head of the Huangpu district government, vice-mayor and mayor of Shanghai Municipal Government, as well as deputy secretary and secretary of the Shanghai CPC Municipal Committee, to seek profits for Shanghai New Huangpu Group Company (SNHGC) and Shanghai Shenhua Football Club.

Chen admitted that Wu Minglie, the former head of SNHGC, had replaced Chen's father's old home with a new one that was valued at 930,000 yuan more than the old residence. Other members of Chen's family also accepted free foreign trips from Wu, media reports said.

Earlier media reports said, Chen asked Yu Zhifei, the former head of the football club, to arrange a senior post for his son, Chen Weili. Chen Weili later acted as deputy general manager of the club, for which he was paid 352,000 yuan, although he did not actually work there, the reports said.

Reacting over the judgement, experts said awarding prison sentence to Chen demonstrated the resolution of the CPC's Central Committee to build a clean party, promote clean governance and fight corruption.

"Whoever it is, no matter how high their positions are, anyone who violates party rules or national law will be severely punished," the Central Committee once said in a statement.

Source : IANS