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1st LD-Writethru: Former Nanjing Party chief stands trial for bribery

Xinhua, August 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Yang Weize, former Communist Party chief of Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, stood trial on Wednesday for accepting bribes.

Yang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Jiangsu Provincial Committee, was accused of taking advantage of his various official posts from 2005 to 2014 to seek benefits for others in real estate development and personnel promotion.

In exchange, Yang accepted bribes worth over 16.43 million yuan (around 2.48 million U.S. dollars) either by himself or through his wife, according to the indictment from the People's Procuratorate of Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The procuratorate filed the charges with the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court.

Yang confessed to taking bribes and expressed remorse in court.

The court ruling will be announced on a later date.

The maximum penalty for those convicted of accepting bribes of at least 3 million yuan in an "extremely serious case" with "extremely vile impact" is the death penalty, according to a new judicial explanation issued in April. However, a two-year suspended death sentence may be issued if there are mitigating factors.

More than 60 people, including journalists and members of the public, observed Wednesday's hearing. Endi