Court upholds 12-year jail term for former CPPCC vice chairman in Shaanxi

LANZHOU, July 10 (Xinhua) -- A court in northwest China on Thursday upheld a 12-year jail sentence for Pang Jiayu, former vice chairman of the provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Shaanxi, after his appeal period expired.

The Intermediate People's Court in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, said Pang had lodged no appeal to a higher court to review his conviction and sentence on corruption charges before the appeal time expired on Wednesday.

The court upheld the sentence handed down at the preliminary trial last month under which Pang was jailed and his personal assets worth 200,000 yuan (29,217 U.S. dollars) were confiscated.

Pang was dismissed from his post as vice chairman of Shaanxi's top political advisory body in February last year, when he was also expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The 63-year-old native of northeast China's Jilin Province was found to have taken 480,000 yuan in bribes from 1997 to 1999, when he was acting as mayor and CPC party chief of Baoji city in Shaanxi.

He was also accused of dereliction of duty for "illegally approving" the establishment of a state-owned security company, which had run up losses of 316 million yuan, when he was acting as deputy mayor of Baoji, according to the court.