Former official sentenced to 12 years for graft

BEIJING?-?Former political advisor Yang Gang was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday for accepting bribes by the Third Intermediate People's Court of Beijing.

Yang was former deputy head of the Committee for Economic Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The court announced the verdict in public, adding that personal assets worth 1 million yuan (152,000 U.S. dollars) would also be confiscated.

The court found that from April 1998 to the second half of 2012, Yang helped others to market and develop projects, and took advantage of his posts in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and as deputy head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine to help others.

From February 2008 to August 2013, Yang, by himself or through his wife and son, accepted 12.16 million yuan, 11,000 U.S. dollars and other assets worth 1.56 million yuan.

The court ruled that the defendant's acts constituted bribery.

A lenient sentence was handed down due to mitigating circumstances including the fact that Yang confessed to other crimes and he paid back his ill-gotten gains.