One man was sentenced to death, another to life imprisonment and 27 were given jail terms from 18 months to nine years yesterday for their role in the Shanxi kiln slave labor scandal.

Shanxi Provincial High People's Court officials held a televised press conference to announce the verdicts a day after 95 local Party and government officials were punished for dereliction of duty in the same scandal.

A court in Linfen in Shanxi found Zhao Yanbing, who supervised workers in a Hongtong County kiln, guilty of beating a mentally challenged laborer to death, and handed him down the capital punishment.