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Prison guards sentenced over inmate escape in NE China

Xinhua, November 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Three prison guards were given prison terms from three to six years for abuse of power which led to three inmates' escape and the death of another guard, a Chinese court announced Friday.

The Songbei District People's Court in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, sentenced Zhang Gequn, head of the detention center of Yanshou County, to six years in prison, and two of his assistants to three and five years in prison, respectively, for the jailbreak in September last year.

The three inmates were captured after a mass manhunt. On Nov. 13, the Harbin Municipal Intermediate People's Court sentenced two of them to death and another to life in prison.

At the first sentencing trial of the prison guards Friday, the court held the prison chief Zhang guilty as he ordered to reduce patrol and monitoring frequency at the prison. On the day of the jailbreak, one of the deputy chiefs fell asleep while on duty. The other deputy officer was held guilty as he was responsible for the lack of supervision of police outfits including uniforms and weapons.

On Sept. 2 last year, a guard identified as Duan took one of the inmates named Gao Yulun to an interrogation room. Gao attacked Duan while the two of them were alone in the room.

Before the attack, Gao and his fellow inmate Wang Damin planned to escape the prison and persuaded another inmate Li Haiwei to join them. After killing Duan, the three took keys from Duan's pockets, stole police uniforms and escaped.

Among the three inmates, Gao was sentenced to death for jailbreak and intentional homicide, Wang was given death sentence over jailbreak, theft and intentional injury, and Li will be imprisoned for life for jailbreak and intentional homicide. Endi