Xing Yun, a former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes worth 449 million yuan ($63.7 million).

Liaoning province's Dalian Intermediate People's Court issued the verdict on Tuesday, saying that he shall be sentenced to life imprisonment at the expiration of the reprieve, and he shall not be allowed to commute the sentence or be granted parole. The money involved will be turned over to the State treasury.

Xing said in court he would not appeal.

The court gave Xing a lighter punishment because he exposed evidence of other people's corruption, confessed his crimes and returned the ill-gotten money and goods.

Xing was found to have taken advantage of his positions－as Party chief of Ih Juu League and Baotou city; secretary of the region's Political and Legal Affairs Commission; and vice-chairman of the region's Standing Committee of the People's Congress－to offer help to people and departments in project contracting and personnel promotions from 1996 to 2017.

Xing, born in 1952, is a native of Inner Mongolia. He joined the Party in 1981 and became Party chief of Ih Juu League in 1996. He was appointed vice-chairman of the region's Standing Committee of the People's Congress in 2012.

Xing was placed under investigation in October 2018 by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission. He was expelled from the Party in late April.