A Chinese court has jailed five officials including the local government head of construction over a fire in Shanghai that left 58 people dead, the Xinhua news agency and Shanghai media said Tuesday.
Gao Weizhong, head of construction in Shanghai's central Jing'an district, was found guilty of abuse of power and accepting bribes and sentenced to 16 years in jail, the reports said.
The court in Shanghai also confiscated 30,000 yuan ($4,657) of his assets and handed jail sentences of between five and 13-and-a-half years to four other local officials with responsibility in the case.
More than 70 people were also wounded by the blaze last November in a high-rise apartment block in Shanghai and the disaster became a focus of public anger over how such an incident could occur in a modern city like Shanghai.
It also raised questions about the allegedly close relations between the contractors and authorities in the district where the building was located, fuelling suspicions of corruption and negligence.
A preliminary investigation said welders accidentally ignited nylon netting around the 28-storey building, which was being renovated to improve energy efficiency.
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