Beijing: A court has upheld the death sentence, with a two-year reprieve, handed down to a former senior legislator and Communist Party official from east China on charge of accepting bribes from companies.

Wang Wulong, former deputy chief of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Peoples Congress, the provincial legislature, was found guilty of asking for or accepting bribes totalling 6.83 million Yuan ($940,000) from two firms from 1995 to 2006.

Wang, who had filed an appeal against the sentence passed by a municipal-level court in February, was also deprived of his political rights for life by the Higher Peoples Court in the neighbouring Anhui province, which also ordered confiscation of all his properties.

He was charged with having sought benefits from the two companies when he was the Mayor of Nanjing, the provincial capital of Jiangsu, and as the Communist party chief, top legislator and deputy chief of the provincial legislature, official Xinhua news agency said.

Relatives of Wang had given back 1.3 million Yuan ($180,000) during the investigation, it said.
Source : PTI