The former board chairman of a northwest Chinese freeway construction company received a death sentence, with a two-year stay, after being convicted for bribery on Wednesday.

The ruling was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, against Chen Shuangquan, who formerly was chairman of the Shaanxi Freeway Construction Group Company (SFCGC).

The court was told that Chen was appointed as chairman of the board of SFCGC in April 2001. During his tenure, Chen was in charge of construction of three freeways: Yan'an-Huangling, Xi'an-Hanzhong and an airport highway for Xianyang, a city in interior Shaanxi.

The court heard that he took advantage of his post and sought benefits on behalf of a number of construction organizations and individuals in relation to freeway construction and loan guarantees.

He received substantial bribes in return, the court was told. These bribes added up to 9.12 million yuan (about 1.3 million U.S. dollars), paid in various currencies.

Although about 1 million yuan could not be accounted for at the time of his arrest, Chen and his family eventually returned some of the bribes.

The court said that the scale of the bribery was very serious and Chen deserved the harshest punishment. However, since he had cooperated with investigators, "leniency was shown in meting out the penalty," it said.

Also under the ruling, Chen was stripped of his political rights for life and all his personal assets were confiscated.

On the same day, the court also found Du Xinke, chairman of the board of the Huangling-Yan'an Freeway Company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of SFCGC) and Zhao Feng, chief of the secretariat to the board of SFCGC, guilty of accepting bribes.

An Fuqiang, deputy general manager of the Huangling-Yan'an Freeway Company, was found guilty of facilitating bribery and accepting bribes.

Du received a nine-year jail sentence and confiscation of 200,000 yuan. Zhao got 10 years in jail and confiscation of 30,000 yuan, and An was ordered to serve 11 and a half years in jail, along with confiscation of 60,000 yuan.

It was not immediately known if any of the four would appeal.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2008)