The Intermediate People's Court of Bozhou City of east China's Anhui Province gave a former deputy mayor an eight-year jail term for accepting bribes totaling about 400,000 yuan (56,000 U.S. dollars) on Thursday.

Ni Yi was found to have accepted 380,000 yuan (52,700 U.S. dollars) and a Montblanc watch during his tenures as director of the municipal land resources bureau and deputy mayor of Bozhou from 1999 to 2007.

In return, Ni helped the bribers in job transfers, obtaining land use certificates or acquiring land, according to the court.

Ni refused to accept the judgment of first instance by the court of Mengcheng County and appealed to the Intermediate People's Court of Bozhou in December last year.

The court finally ruled that Ni's behavior had constituted the crime of accepting bribes, but he was given a mitigated jail sentence as he returned all the bribes and showed a "good attitude of remorse".

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)