SHANGHAI - A FORMER leading official in Shanghai's ultramodern Pudong skyscraper district has been sentenced to life in prison for corruption, state media reported on Tuesday.

A Shanghai court convicted Kang Huijun, 52, of taking more than 5.9 million yuan (S$1.3 million) in bribes and illegally acquiring 12.1 million yuan through other means, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Kang was director of the district's economic and trade bureau and general manager of state-owned property developer Shanghai Lujiazui (Group) Co Ltd, before becoming deputy district head in 2004, the report said.

His wife, Wang Xiaoqin, was sentenced to five years in prison for taking 880,000 yuan in bribes along with Kang, the report said. The court confiscated 600,000 yuan of her personal property.

The couple owned properties valued at more than 30 million yuan, the court said.

Kang's lawyer, Mr Wang Rong, said his client had yet to decide whether to appeal the sentence, the report said.

Kang is the latest in a series of Shanghai government officials to be sentenced for corruption.

The city's highest-profile conviction was of former Shanghai Communist Party boss Chen Liangyu who last year was sentenced to 18 years in prison for stealing more than 33.9 billion yuan. -- AFP