A second hearing has rejected the appeal of Beijing's former vice mayor Liu Zhihua and sustained the suspended death penalty for him for corruption.

The Provincial Higher People's Court of Hebei, which neighbors Beijing, on Wednesday affirmed the sentence handed down to Liu by the Hengshui Intermediate People's Court on Oct. 18 last year, according to sources with the Supreme People's Court.

Liu, 59, was found guilty of taking bribes totaling 6.97 million yuan (1.02 million U.S. dollars) when he was vice mayor and director of the management committee of Zhongguancun Science Park from 1999 to 2006.

He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve but lodged an appeal one day before the appeal deadline.

The provincial court said "the facts identified during the first hearing are clear, evidence substantial, conviction precise, measurement of penalty appropriate and the hearing procedure legal," and thus rejected Liu's appeal.

Liu was removed from the post of Beijing vice mayor in June 2006 and expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) six months later.

He had been head of the Beijing labor bureau, secretary of the CPC District Committee of Xicheng District in Beijing and secretary general of Beijing municipal government. In 1999, he was elected vice mayor of the capital, a job that oversaw construction, real estate, sports and traffic projects around the city.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2009)