China on Tuesday sentenced to death the former chairman of a branch of state-owned telecom giant China Mobile for accepting $2.6 million-worth of bribes, state media reported.
Li Hua, chairman and general manager of the Sichuan branch of China Mobile Communications Corporation, was convicted of receiving bribes totalling 16.48 million yuan, Xinhua reported, citing a spokesman for the Intermediate People's Court of Panzhihua City.
The report said Li had taken money from local companies in exchange for offering 'interests', but had later turned himself in and the cash had been handed over to the state.
Li, whose age was not given in the brief dispatch, was sentenced to death with two years' probation, the report said.
A death sentence with a two-year reprieve in China is commonly commuted to life imprisonment.
Corruption by officials is routinely named in opinion polls as a top source of public discontent in China.
In a speech in July to mark the ruling Communist Party's 90th birthday, Chinese President Hu Jintao said the anti-graft fight was the key to 'winning or losing public support and the life or death of the party'.