A court in southwest China's Guizhou Province has sentenced 23 members of a gang to jail for up to 20 years for rioting last year over police handling of a teenage girl's death, a court said yesterday.

About 30,000 people set fire to government buildings and overturned vehicles in Guizhou's Weng'an County in July last year, following a police report on the death of a 17-year-old girl.

Family and friends alleged she was raped and killed, possibly by the sons of local officials, but the autopsy report said she had drowned.

A report posted on the official Website of the Supreme People's Court said members of a gang led by Liu Changjun had instigated crowds of young people to break into government buildings and attack police during the riots.

Liu was jailed for up to 20 years on charges including organizing a gang, operating gambling houses, extortion and blackmail. Other gang members were jailed for between one and 20 years.

(Shanghai Daily September 14, 2009)