Society

13 given verdict for deadly N China iron mine landslide

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-04 19:31

TAIYUAN: Thirteen people were sentenced in north China's Shanxi Province for the fatal landslide which left 43 deaths and two missing last year.

The verdicts were given by the people's court of Loufan County on Thursday.

Yan Quewa, former head and Party chief of the Jianshan iron mine, was given jail terms of four years for his responsibility in the major accident.

For the same reason, Wang Jianzhong, former vice head of the mine, was sentenced to jail terms of three and a half years; Zang Long, former chief engineer, Ren Jianguo, former head of the quality department of the mine, and Wang Hailin, former head of the planning department, were sentenced to jail terms of three years; Zhao Guocheng who had been in charge of the mining groups was sentenced to jail terms of three years with a three-year reprieve.

Fan Jianliang, former deputy director of the people's congress of Loufan, Wang Zhufeng, former Party chief of the Miyuzhen village, Mu Jisong, former deputy director of the emergency rescue office of the Shanxi provincial administration of work safety and Chen Jinzhu, former vice head of the Jianshan police station, were all sentenced to jail terms of two years with a two-year reprieve for dereliction of duty.

Duan Jinwen, former vice head of the Majiazhuang police station, was sentenced to jail terms of 14 months with a 14-month reprieve for the same reason.

Chen Changyou, former vice head of the Bizigou mine and Li Guojun, former head of the letters and complaints bureau of Loufan, were exempted of criminal charges.

A pre-dawn landslide toppled a waste dump from a local iron mine on Aug.1, 2008, burying Sigou Village in Loufan County in the suburbs of the provincial capital Taiyuan and resulting in an economic loss of 30.8 million yuan (about 4.5 million US dollars).