A former senior official in one of China's poorest counties has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking 10.56 million yuan (US$1.61 million) in bribes and having property worth 3.49 million yuan he couldn't account for.

Wang Xianmin, former Party Secretary of Tanchang county in Gansu Province.[File photo]

Wang Xianmin, 43, former Party Secretary of Tanchang County in Gansu Province, was sentenced at the Intermediate People's Court of Baiyin City, the Procuratorial Daily reported yesterday.

During his three-year tenure from 2006, Wang abused his position to take massive bribes while more than half the county's villagers were struggling under the national poverty line.

The county's annual net income for rural residents reached 1,510 yuan per head in 2009, Gansu Economic News reported previously.

Wang also had 3.5 million yuan worth of assets which he could not account for, according to the verdict.

However, he was given a lighter sentence because he confessed to his crimes, which he committed between 2006 and 2010, and returned the illegal earnings, the verdict said.

Wang said he would appeal the first-trial verdict.

In China, suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life imprisonment if the prisoner does not commit any further offense over the next two years.