A gang leader involved in the forced labor scandal in north China's Shanxi Province that was exposed in early June has been caught.

The man, Zhang Zhengjiang, was caught in Henan Province, his hometown, last week and has been taken to Shanxi for questioning, the Legal Daily reported today.

Zhang has confessed to imprisoning and beating laborers who were forced to work in a brick kiln in Shanxi.

At the end of May police in the north of Shanxi Province rescued 31 people who had been forced to work as slaves for a year at a local kiln.

The workers had been severely bruised and burnt and many were seriously injured after having to carry hot bricks and walk barefoot around the kiln.

Police said 23 of the 31 saved had been lured to work from railway stations in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, and Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province. They were unpaid, given only bread and water and had to work from 5 AM until 1 AM.

Police began to search for Zhang from May 8 last year and visited Shaanxi, Hubei and Inner Mongolia but failed to locate him.

(Shanghai Daily August 27, 2008)