A former high-ranking provincial official in east China's Anhui Province has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on corruption charges, a local court announced on Monday.

Wang Zhaoyao, former deputy chairman of the provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was also deprived of his political rights for life, according to the Intermediate People's Court of Jinan, capital of eastern Shandong Province.

Wang was found to have taken advantage of his position to take bribes of 7.04 million yuan (about 891,000 U.S. dollars) and failed to account for property worth 6.5 million yuan (about 800,000 U.S. dollars).

The court also ordered the confiscation of all his personal property.

The court said Wang had admitted to "most of his wrong-doings", and had returned and handed in "all the bribes".

He also provided helpful information relating to the investigation, according to the court.

Wang, 62, had served as secretary of the Suxian and Fuyang prefectural level CPC committees, deputy governor of Anhui and deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial CPC Committee.

He was a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), but was expelled from the national legislative body in August 2005 for serious breaches of discipline.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate appointed Shandong Provincial People's Procuratorate to investigate Wang's case on Sept. 14, 2005 and he was arrested about two weeks later.

He went on trial on Nov. 29, 2006.

Source: Xinhua