(FILE)

Guo Jingyi, the highest-ranking former official with China's Ministry of Commerce to be prosecuted, stood trial in the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court on March 18.

Prosecutors accused Guo, 44, of accepting bribes worth 8.44 million yuan ($1.24 million) from businesspeople between 2002 and 2007 in return for helping with illegal deals. Several former senior officials with the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange were also found involved in Guo's case.

Guo entered the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, predecessor of the Ministry of Commerce, in 1986 when he graduated from the Law School of Peking University. In 2002, he was appointed deputy head of the ministry's Treaty and Law Department. The ministry was renamed in 2003.

Guo was detained by the police in October 2008, when he was serving as a senior inspector at the department.