A court in central China's Henan Province has upheld the jail sentence given to a police officer for abuse of power in connection to the death of an inmate who was forced to have a cold shower on a chilly morning at a labor camp two years ago.

In second and final trial at the Kaifeng City Intermediate People's Court of Henan, the court upheld the 18 month jail sentence given to police officer Yang Jianwei, the court said in a written statement Friday.

The Shunhe Hui Autonomous District People's Court of Kaifeng originally handed down the sentence on Sept. 15, 2010. Yang appealed after the sentence.

The Kaifeng City Intermediate People's Court upheld the sentence on Nov. 9.

Yang, the former head of the second police brigade at the labor camp in Kaifeng City, allegedly forced 60-year-old Mu Damin to have a cold shower on a chilly morning on March 14, 2008.

Mu was then struck by cerebrovascular rupture and died five days later.

Mu began a one year detention at Kaifeng municipal labor camp on April 25, 2007, on a robbery charge.