SHENYANG, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Four Chinese policemen have been sentenced to jail terms from one to two years for torturing a confession from a man who later died, a court spokesman said Tuesday.

    Officers Niu Dongsheng, Xu Songshan, Zhen Weimin and Song Guangzhou were sentenced with reprieves of two or three years each, said the spokesman with Baita District People's Court, in Liaoyang City, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

    The four officers from Luohe City, in central Henan Province, were convicted of using electric batons to apply electric shocks to a man surnamed Zhai, who was suspected of involvement in an illegal pyramid selling scheme.

    They were interrogating Zhai in a Liaoyang hotel in April, but they claimed he refused to cooperate, the spokesman said.

    The officers took Zhai to hospital when he went very pale and was short of breath, but he later died.

    An investigation by experts from the Shenyang-based China Medical University indicated that Zhai had a coronary heart disease and the electric shocks were not the sole cause of death, the spokesman said.

    Baita District People's Procuratorate charged the policemen with extorting a confession by torture.

    The four officers had shown remorse for their crime and taken a positive attitude in compensation talks with Zhai's family, he said.

    "Based on all that, the judges took a lenient attitude in sentencing," he said.

    The sentence was handed down on Nov. 3, and the four officers had not lodged appeals within the 10-day period appeal deadline, he said.