Former Chinese bank official sentenced to death with reprieve for taking bribes

WUHAN, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Fan Yifei, a former vice governor of the People's Bank of China, was sentenced to death, with a two-year reprieve, for taking a huge amount of bribes.

The sentence was handed down by a court in Huanggang, central China's Hubei Province, on Thursday.

The court ruling said that after the two-year reprieve period expires and the penalty is commuted to life imprisonment in accordance with the law, no further commutation or parole will be allowed.

Fan was convicted of illegally accepting bribes worth over 386 million yuan (about 54.6 million U.S. dollars), either by himself or via other people. ■