14 February 2004	Saturday	22 Zilhaj 1424

BEIJING, Feb 13: Wang Huaizhong, former vice-governor of east China's Anhui province, was executed on Thursday, after losing an appeal for lighter penalty in January at the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court.

He was put to death by lethal injection following approval by the Supreme People's Court and was allowed to meet his family before the execution, says a report in the People's daily.

Mr Wang, 57, was sentenced to death last December by the Intermediate People's Court of Jinan, capital of the eastern Shandong Province, for taking bribes values at 5.17m yuan (623,000 dollars) from 1994 to 2001 and possessing 4.8m yuan that he could not account for.

He was also deprived of his political rights and the court ordered confiscation of all his properties. The former official was detained and investigated in September 2002 by the Supreme People's Procuratorate for suspicion of taking bribes, and was arrested in October.

Instead of confessing to his crimes, Mr Wang had stood against the public prosecutors and even continued to seek bribes during the investigation from some private business owners, said Wang Huanhai, head of the investigation team.

According to the prosecutor, Mr Wang attempted to use the bribe to buy over more relations, hoping the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party would spare him from being inquisited. -People's Daily