Former Vice President of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) Huang Songyou went on trail for taking bribes and graft in north China's Hebei Province Thursday.

Huang Songyou [File Photo: sohu.com]

Huang, 52, was accused of taking more than 3.9 million yuan (574,000 U.S. dollars) in bribes from 2005 to 2008 when he served as SPC vice president, Langfang municipal procuratorate said.

He was also accused of embezzling 1.2 million yuan in 1997 when he was president of the Zhanjiang municipal Intermediate People's Court in south China's Guangdong Province, according to the Langfang procuratorate.

A native of Guangdong Province, Huang became SPC vice president in 2002. He was removed from the post on Oct. 28, 2008, by Chinese lawmakers at a bi-monthly legislative session.

According to a statement issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in August last year, Huang had been stripped of his CPC membership.

He is the first chief judge to have been removed for suspected law and discipline violations in the history of the SPC, Shen Deyong, executive vice president of the SPC, told Xinhua earlier.

Chinese leaders have vowed on a frequent basis to fight against corruption at various occasions in the past years.

At a three-day plenary session of the CCDI opened this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that the Party should "fully recognize the situation of the fight against corruption," which was "persistent, complicated and arduous."

Last year, at least 15 ministerial or provincial level officials, including heads of State-owned enterprises, were investigated for corruption, nine of whom were referred for prosecution, the CCDI said.