BEIJING, Mar13 (INP): China has kept up the pressure in the fight against corruption while making progress on reform of the country's supervision system in the past year, according to work reports of the top court and top procuratorate released on Wednesday.

Thirty-two officials at or above ministerial level were charged last year with graft, including Sun Zhengcai and Wang Sanyun, said Zhang Jun, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, during the work report to the top legislature.

Sun, former Chongqing Party secretary was sentenced on May 8 to life in prison for taking bribes of over $25.3 million.

Wang, former Party secretary of Gansu province, stood trial in October, and no verdict has been released yet.

As a result of an unwavering resolve to bring the corrupt to justice, about 33,000 people in 28,000 cases were convicted of taking bribes or dereliction of duty last year, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said in the work report of the Supreme People's Court.

Another 2,466 people were convicted of offering bribes last year amid a heavy crackdown on bribery, he said.

The large quantity of corruption convictions shows that China is unswervingly advancing the fight against graft, and reform of the country's supervision system has played its role, said Jiang Laiyong, a senior law researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Prosecuting departments agreed to take a look at a total of 16,092 suspects alleged to have engaged in graft and who were handed over by supervision commissions nationwide, according to the SPP report.

Prosecutors charged 9,802 of them and decided not to charge 250 people, the report said. The others remain under investigation.

Judicial and procuratorial organs have also kept a close watch on mafia-like gangs and crimes that affect people's daily life such as pollution and drug security.

Prosecutors charged 61,188 suspects involved in organized crime or local mafias last year, and about 350 people were charged with serving as a "protection umbrella" for such criminals, according to the SPP report.