A senior official in southwest China's Sichuan Province was sentenced by the Chengdu City Intermediate Court to 17 years in imprisonment on Monday for corruption.

The court found that Wang Xinjian, former vice-director of the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Land Resources, took bribes of 732,000 yuan (US$88,520) from 1996 to 2001.

Wang was also punished for failing to name legitimate sources for 2.35 million yuan (some US$284,200), 56,000 US dollars and 7,227 Hong Kong dollars he had owned.

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2003)