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Stiff jail term for polluting boss is the right decision
By Wang Yong |
August 20, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
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MY hat's off to the judges of Yancheng City who have sentenced the boss of a chemical factory to 11 years in prison on charges of knowingly poisoning local drinking waters.
On August 14, a local court in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, created a legal precedent in China by meting out a much harsher criminal punishment than most people had expected to Hu Wenbiao, chairman of the now defunct Biaoxin Chemical Company.
Hu's company was found to have dumped poisonous chemicals into local drinking waters for many years and on February 20 the waters were so polluted that 200,000 residents found their water supply cut off for 66 hours.
In the past, all similar cases and criminals have been decided with reference to the crime of causing a major environmental accident, a crime that usually carries a penalty of just three to seven years in prison.
Legal experts are divided on Yancheng's decision, with some giving the thumb's up and others the thumb's down to the local judges' unprecedented choice of a harsher penalty.
But who can deny that Hu Wenbiao had been "knowingly" dumping poison in the river that was an important source of drinking water? Even if he didn't have an actual malice to murder innocent people, he had every reason to foresee the horrible result and yet he let it happen.
If Yancheng's precedent is applied nationwide, you bet there'll be less drunk driving, or no driving at all - every driver knows that all cars are polluting.
On August 14, a local court in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, created a legal precedent in China by meting out a much harsher criminal punishment than most people had expected to Hu Wenbiao, chairman of the now defunct Biaoxin Chemical Company.
Hu's company was found to have dumped poisonous chemicals into local drinking waters for many years and on February 20 the waters were so polluted that 200,000 residents found their water supply cut off for 66 hours.
In the past, all similar cases and criminals have been decided with reference to the crime of causing a major environmental accident, a crime that usually carries a penalty of just three to seven years in prison.
Legal experts are divided on Yancheng's decision, with some giving the thumb's up and others the thumb's down to the local judges' unprecedented choice of a harsher penalty.
But who can deny that Hu Wenbiao had been "knowingly" dumping poison in the river that was an important source of drinking water? Even if he didn't have an actual malice to murder innocent people, he had every reason to foresee the horrible result and yet he let it happen.
If Yancheng's precedent is applied nationwide, you bet there'll be less drunk driving, or no driving at all - every driver knows that all cars are polluting.
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