A former publicity official in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, received a suspended death sentence Friday for taking bribes valued at 9.5 million yuan (1.2 million US dollars).

Gao Yong, former head of publicity department at Chengdu municipal committee of the Chinese Communist Party, was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court in Neijiang but was given a two-year reprieve.

Court investigation found Gao took advantage of his posts to accept bribes between 1996 and 2001. Before he became publicity chief in the provincial capital, he had worked in the local government in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture and branches of China Securities Regulatory Commission in Chengdu and Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Gao was also accused of owning 6.6 million yuan (820,000 US dollars) of property for which he could not name a legitimate source.

Court sources said Gao voluntarily made confessions, which helped retrieve huge amounts of illicit money from abroad and provided clues concerning other suspects.

Source: Xinhua