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.