A local court in Central China on Monday jailed a former deputy sports minister for 10 and half years after finding him guilty on a bribery case, which is apparently a part of President Xi Jinping's ongoing nationwide crackdown against corruption.

The court in Nanyang town ruled that Xiao Tian was guilty of taking 7.96 million yuan ($1.15 million) in bribes from 1997 to 2014 in exchange of favoring certain people and organizations with promotions, building projects, and holding of sports events.

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The court claimed that it gave a lighter sentence to Xiao since he had confessed, repented, and also cooperated in returning back his illicit gains to officials.

The local media could not reach Xiao or his lawyer to seek their reaction on the verdict.         

Xiao was the deputy head of the General Administration of Sport. During his tenure, he sat on various sports committees including the Olympic committee and also wielded substantial power in China's sports affairs.

The former sports minister was put under investigation last year, after it was suspected that he along with another top official had participated in several wrongdoings during the process of the Winter Olympic bid.

Earlier this year, Xi commented that China's Winter Olympics must be "clean as the snow." Xi's statement was seen as an indirect reference to Xiao's Olympics scandal.

China is scheduled to hold Winter Olympics in 2022, which will be the first in the country. China had successfully organized Summer Olympics in 2008, with international community showering praises on country's leadership for flawlessly organizing the mega event.      

Tagschina, China Sports Minister, China Graft, China Corruption Fight