Hong Kong  - A former senior Macau government official has committed suicide after being questioned over an alleged 750,000-US-dollar corruption case, his family said Wednesday.

Alexandre Ho Si-him, 62, former head of the Macau Consumer Council, hanged himself in a hotel room in Zhuhai, southern China, on Sunday, according to a statement released to the media by his sister.

Ho, who was previously a legislator and a member of the committee that drafted Macau's Basic Law, stepped down after being questioned by anti-corruption investigators in December.

He was accused of corruption over the granting of government contracts over a four-year period to companies he owned. No comment on his death was made by the Macau administration.

Ho's suicide follows a series of corruption scandals involving senior officials in the former Portuguese colony, best known as a gambling resort for punters from across Asia.

In January, former transport minister Ao Man Long was jailed for 27 years in January for taking tens of millions of US dollars in bribes in return for public works contracts. (dpa)