17 October 2016•Update: 17 October 2016
By Mahmut Atanur
BEIJING
A Chinese court has sentenced a former senior energy official to death with a two-year reprieve after finding him guilty of having accepted bribes amounting to around $31.4 million.
State news agency Xinhua reported that Wei Pengyuan, former deputy head of the coal department of China's National Energy Administration, was convicted Monday for “holding a huge amount of assets from unidentified sources”.
The Baoding City Intermediate People's Court in northern Hebei province said in a statement that he had accepted more than 211.7 million yuan in bribes.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported in late 2014 that investigators discovered local and foreign currency worth more than 200 million yuan at Wen’s home.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping launched a corruption probe under which tens of thousands of suspects have been investigated, including dozens of high-profile individuals at the top of the Communist Party of China.
In August, the anti-graft watchdog announced that 163,000 officials -- including 41 at provincial and ministerial levels -- were penalized this year for violating party's political discipline.
According to the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Committee -- the country’s top anti-graft body -- 336,000 people were punished last year, with the cases of 14,000 submitted to the judiciary for suspected criminal activity.
