?A Chinese court on Tuesday sentenced three officials to serve jail terms of up to 13 years for taking bribes.

Pang Yaxun, a former researcher with the land development center of Nansha District of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, was given 13 years in prison and confiscated of 2.7 million yuan (395,400 U.S. dollars), according to the verdict handed down by the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court.

Pan was convicted of taking 2.5 million yuan in bribes for helping others seek benefits from government-sponsored projects between 2005 and 2006, when he served as the vice director of the land development center.

The court lessened punishment to Pang as he had given himself up and confessed to the judicial authorities.

The court also sentenced Liu Haitao to 7 years in jail and confiscated 100,000 yuan from his personal property.

Liu was convicted of taking 2.17 million yuan in bribes along with a collaborator and solely received 610,000 yuan between 2002 to 2008, when he served as senior leader of two state-owned companies in charge of land development and capital management in Guangzhou.

The court also gave a four-year jail term to a former salt business official and confiscated 60,000 yuan from his property.

Shen Zhiqiang, former director with the Guangdong provincial salt business bureau, was convicted of taking 659,000 yuan in bribes between 2006 to 2008.

Investigations showed that Shen helped a company to win a salt package bidding by taking advantage of his post in 2006 and got rewards in 24 payments in the following two years.

The court alleviated punishment to Shen, taking into consideration that he had confessed himself before the investigation started.

Shen said at the court that he would consider whether to appeal to a higher court.