Three township officials in north China have been sentenced to
up to 12 years in prison for negligence in a retrial over a coal
mine flooding last year that killed 56 workers.
Liu Yongxin, former head of Zhangjiachang Town, was sentenced to
12 years for abuse of power, negligence and a new charge of
bribery, according to the Yanggao County People's Court in Shanxi Province.
In the first trial in December, Liu had only been sentenced to
one year in prison with a reprieve of a year and a half.
Chang Rui, former secretary of the Communist Party of China
Zhangjiachang Town Committee, was sentenced to three years in
prison. He had received a sentence of two years in prison with a
three-year probation.
Both men were directly blamed for the fatal flooding of Xinjing
Coal Mine in Zhangjiachang on May 18 last year, which killed 56
workers, according to the court.
Chen Xiqing, a former senior official of the Zhangjiachang
township legislature, got two and a half years in prison. He had
received one year and a half with a two-year reprieve in the first
trial.
The Intermediate People's Court of Datong City ordered the
retrial after it ruled that the first verdicts handed down by
Yanggao People's Court had been too lenient.
Eight other officials, including Bian Zhiqiang, a former land
and resource official of Zuoyun County, will also undergo
retrials.
(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2007)