China jails former senior sports official for bribery

By Fuat Kabakci

BEIJING (AA) - A Chinese court has sentenced a former deputy director of the General Administration of Sport to 10 and a half years in jail for bribery and fined him half a million yuan ($71,950).

The state-run China Radio International reported Monday that the Nanyang Intermediate People's Court in central Henan province found Xiao Tian guilty of having accepted more than 7.96 million yuan ($1.15 million) in bribes.

Xiao was accused of taking advantage of his various official posts from 1997 to 2014 and seeking benefits for others in various sectors including project construction, job arrangements, personnel promotion and sporting events.

In 2013, President Xi launched a anti-corruption drive under which tens of thousands of suspects have been investigated, including dozens of high-profile individuals at the top of the Communist Party of China.

In August, the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Committee announced that 163,000 officials -- including 41 at provincial and ministerial levels -- were penalized this year for violating party's political discipline.

According to the anti-graft body, 336,000 people were punished last year, with the cases of 14,000 submitted to the judiciary for suspected criminal activity.