SHIJIAZHUANG, Sept. 24 -- Tan Qiwei, a former senior legislator in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, went on trial Thursday for taking bribes.

The case was held at the Intermediate People's Court of Hengshui City in north China's Hebei Province.

Tan is accused of accepting more than 11.43 million yuan (about 1.8 million U.S. dollars) between 1998 and 2014, according to the indictment from the People's Procuratorate of Hengshui.

The bribes were accepted either by Tan, or through his wife, to secure project contracts and other economic benefits for individuals and companies when he served as government and Communist Party chief of Chongqing's Nan'an District as well as Chongqing's vice mayor and deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee, according to the indictment.

A verdict will be announced on another date, the court said.