In the same court trial, Wen's wife Zhou Xiaoya was also given jail terms of eight years after being convicted of taking advantage of her husband's official position and taking bribes totaling 4.49 million yuan with Wen.

The lower court also delivered verdicts on Huang Daiqiang, Zhao Liming and Chen Tao, the three former Chongqing police officers,in the same trial.

Huang was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after being found guilty of offering and taking bribes, protecting criminal gangs as well as concealing his illegal gains.

Chen was jailed for 19 years and 6 months after being convicted for offering and taking bribes as well as being involved in criminal gangs.

Zhao Liming faces 17 years and 6 months in jail for offering and taking bribes, involvement in criminal gangs and embezzlement.

At Thursday's court hearing, Wen appealed all counts of his conviction, citing mismatch of facts and the conviction itself -- asking for a lenient sentence.

Wen said he cooperated with prosecutors and provided information to help the investigations -- a consideration for leniency in accordance with the law.

Wen was the highest ranking official to fall in last year's massive clamp-down on organized crimes in Chongqing. More than 90 local officials were prosecuted and 42 of them were found guilty of sheltering mafia-style gangs in the city.

Thursday's court hearing didn't produce a verdict. The hearing would last two to three more days, according to the Chongqing Municipal Higher People's Court spokesman.

According to Chinese law, the ruling of the appeal court is final.

If his case is rejected, Wen's death sentence still needs to be forwarded to the Supreme People's Court for review before he is executed.