Three people from a local relocation company were sentenced on Tuesday for starting fires that killed an elderly couple in a neighborhood arrowed for relocation. Two were given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve and the other life imprisonment.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, in the first instance, sentenced Wang Changkun and Yang Sunqin of the Shanghai Urban Development Housing Relocation Co. Ltd to death with a two-year reprieve for arson. Lu Peide, another company worker was sentenced to life in prison.

The court found that the three set fire to a neighborhood off Urumqi Road on January 9, intending to scare uncooperative residents into signing relocation deals and moving out. An elderly couple in their 70s was killed in the fire.

Shanghai police started a murder inquiry after they discovered evidence of arson.

The company was known to have been eyeing the land, and investigations soon narrowed suspects down to the three.

Yang Sunqin was also deputy general manager and holder of 10 percent of shares in the company. The State-owned Shanghai Urban Development Group owns 50 percent of the company's shares.

According to confessions given to the court, Yang engineered the idea of the arson attack, Wang worked out the details and Lu set the fire alight. Following the attack, Yang forced some workers at the company to lie to the police during the investigations.

The company was responsible for at least another five attacks on the same neighborhood in 2004, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Shanghai's real estate and construction administrations have launched a massive shake-up of relocation projects in the city since the case came to light.

(China Daily August 26, 2005)