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October 1, 2010

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58 sentenced for mine debacle that killed 227

FIFTEEN local courts in China's northern province of Shanxi handed down sentences yesterday for 58 people held responsible for a landslide caused by an unlicensed iron ore mine that killed 227 people and left another four still missing.

The former head of the Xinta Mining Co, Zhang Peiliang, was sentenced to death but with two years of reprieve.

Such punishments are usually commuted to life in prison.

The Linfen Intermediate People's Court also fined Zhang 50 million yuan (US$7.5 million) and confiscated 30 million yuan of his assets after finding him guilty of illicit trading of explosives, illegal mining, tax evasion, paying bribes and responsibility for the fatal accident.

The others received jail terms in cases heard in seven intermediate courts and eight grassroots court rooms in Shanxi.

The former police director of Shanxi's Yuncheng City, Duan Bo, got life imprisonment for taking bribes of more than 24 million yuan.

The city's former vice mayor was sentenced to 12 years for taking bribes of more than 2 million yuan.

Su Baosheng, vice director of Shanxi's work safety administration, received two years' suspended prison sentence for malfeasance.

The others were sentenced to terms between one year with probation up to 20 years' imprisonment for either taking bribes or dereliction of duty.

The unlicensed iron ore dump operated by the Xinta Mining Co collapsed on September 8, 2008, in Xiangfen County, unleashing a three-story wave of gray sludge that inundated an outdoor market, a village and an office building. The disaster occurred just as villagers were arriving at the busy outdoor market in the morning.

The company's illegal use of explosives destroyed iron reserves worth more than 100 million yuan (US$14.8 million), according to Shanxi's provincial Department of Land and Resources.


 

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