Three police officers who illegally removed two suspects from the police online wanted list were sentenced to 10 years, 2 years, and 20 months in jail after they were found guilty in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

The sentence was passed by Yantian District People's Court in the trio's first trial on Wednesday.

The defendants accepted bribes of more than 120,000 yuan ($19,820) for withdrawing the suspects' names from the wanted list, according to a statement from the court.

The prime culprit, surnamed Ye, was also fined 20,000 yuan while the two accessories surnamed Dou and Li were each ordered to pay 10,000 yuan.

The suspects were on the wanted list after they were alleged to have stolen more than 1.3 million yuan worth of property in Shenzhen's Baoan district in January 2007.

However, the suspects later bribed the three police officers, who were responsible for investigating the case in June of the same year.

The defendants then illegally withdrew the suspects from the online list in July 2008.??