Thirty-one people have got sentences ranging from one year and a
half to five years imprisonment in a forced labor scandal disclosed
in early June in north China's Shanxi Province.
Four government employees in Hongtong County and Yongji City were
sentenced to two to three years in prison after local courts
convicted them of power abuse and dereliction of duty, according to
the Shanxi Provincial Higher People's Court.
The four included two local industrial and commercial department
employees, one policeman and one labor and social security
worker.
Twenty-seven others, including brickyard managers and foremen, were
sentenced to up to five years in prison for using child labor and
beatings,the higher court said.
The use of forced laborers hit the headlines after more than 400
parents in central China's Henan Province posted an online petition,
calling for help in rescuing their children who had been sold to
work in small brick kilns in Shanxi and Henan as forced
laborers.
More than 570 people, including 41 children, had been rescued from
illegal brick kilns in the two provinces and nearly 160 people have
been arrested in police operations after the government ordered a
nationwide investigation and rescue campaign.
A total of 95 Party officials in Shanxi have been punished in the
wake of the slave labor scandal. Some were expelled from the Party,
or removed from government posts, or given disciplinary warnings
for lax supervision and dereliction of duty.
In mid July, 29 suspects involved in the scandal were sentenced by
local courts. Zhao Yanbing, an employee of a brick kiln in Hongtong
County, was sentenced to death after being convicted of beating a
mentally handicapped man to death last November. The boss of the
kiln got a prison term of nine years.
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(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2007)