Zhang Rushao, former secretary of the Heshan City Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), south China's Guangdong Province, has been sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison for accepting bribes worth around 3.85 million yuan (US$475,000).

The Intermediate People's Court of Jiangmen City was told that Zhang was unable to identify the source of his assets totaling 4.71 million yuan over a span of 10 years starting in 1993, when Zhang acted as deputy Party secretary of Kaiping City and in charge of affairs concerning rural and township enterprises.

Zhang's case was exposed because of a separate litigation filed by his wife Hu Zhaoxiu in March 2004. In her litigation raised in a Hong Kong court, Hu sued a Hong Kong businessman, who used to make investments in Guangdong, for forging her signature to obtain a platinum credit card which led her to lose 4.76 million yuan.

The Jiangmen City Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC started to investigate Zhang's economic problems in April 2004. Zhang was detained four months later. He was prosecuted in February this year.

He didn't appeal to the higher court after the trial.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2006)