China's high-profile anti-graft campaign brought down a series of high ranking officials in 2006, among whom nine were sentenced by courts, Chief Justice Xiao Yang said Tuesday.

A total of 825 convicted government officials above the county level were sentenced by courts last year, Xiao, president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), said in a work report to the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's parliament.

"Of the convicted, nine were provincial- or ministerial-level officials and 92 were at the prefecture level," he said.

Chinese courts heard 23,733 cases of embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty in 2006, among which 8,310 were bribery cases involving government employees, according to Xiao's report.

"To further boost the anti-graft campaign is an important responsibility and function of the criminal trial," Xiao said, adding that Chinese courts will continue to seriously punish crimes of corruption, bribery and dereliction of duty according to law.

In his report, Xiao also highlighted the courts' efforts of “safeguarding national security and stability", saying that Chinese courts at various levels have intensified punishment to serious crimes including terrorist activities and mafia-natured organized crimes.

He said Chinese courts across the country in 2006 tried and concluded 245,254 criminal cases involving felonies like explosion, murder, robbery, rape and kidnapping, and sentenced 340,715 convicted criminals.

"Among all criminals convicted in China in 2006, 153,724 received sentences from five years or longer in prison up to life imprisonment and death penalty," Xiao said.

A total of 3,668 cases involving a variety of crime were handled by the Supreme Court in 2006, up 14.77 percent over the previous year, according to Xiao's report.

Local courts at all levels heard and concluded 8,105,007 cases in 2006, up 2.07 percent over 2005, including 798,572 criminal cases, 4,831,043 civil cases and 125,976 administrative cases.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2007)