Officials jailed over Shanghai inferno

Court delivers sentences up to 16 yrs for November blaze that killed 58

SHANGHAI - A district official in charge of construction was sentenced to 16 years in jail on Tuesday in connection with a fire in a high-rise block of flats that claimed the lives of 58 people and injured 71 others in Shanghai last year.

Gao Weizhong, former director of the construction and transport committee in Jing'an district, and colleagues Yao Yaming, Zhou Jianmin and Zhang Quan were the most high-profile of the 26 defendants sentenced at Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court.