Death Sentence in Melamine-Milk Scandal

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MoonOverMiami
PopStar
PopStar

Joined: Jan 07, 2008
Posts: 1044

Posted: Jan 22, 2009 - 03:50 PM
Post subject: Death Sentence in Melamine-Milk Scandal

Wonder what was Zhang Yujun's real involvement in this scandal. Can't see why manufacturing melamine alone will warrant the death sentence.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28787126/

Man gets death sentence in China milk scandal

SHIJIAZHUANG, China - A Chinese court has handed down a death penalty to a man convicted of endangering public safety in the first sentencing connected with a contaminated milk scandal that shocked the country.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang gave the death sentence to Zhang Yujun. He was convicted of running a workshop that was allegedly China's largest source of melamine, the substance responsible for the health crisis.

A court spokesman said a second man, Zhang Yanzhang, was given a life sentence, also for endangering public safety.

The court is expected to hand down a sentence later Thursday for Tian Wenhua, the general manager of the dairy company at the heart of the scandal.

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bloomark
Fire-eater

Joined: Apr 28, 2008
Posts: 2803
Location: Reality

Posted: Jan 22, 2009 - 04:10 PM

They grasped typical case once again. It can be deemed as a big jerkoff case 'cause similar cases happen everywhere that the justice and the reinforcement cannot afford to clear them all hence other liables have already got away with it without a scratch. The respective authorities share the blame but they have put it over one "respondent" and then smoothly wiped their asses clean. We just deem it as an examplary case as termed by the authorities going institutional all the while. Such case can't be helped any better in China these days and I feel sorry for the "respondent". I assure you similar cases in other fields will come again and again in the near or far future. Just wait and see. No fuss.

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jzzzzzzz

StreetBeater

Joined: July 07, 2006
Posts: 2302

Status: Offline

Posted: Jan 22, 2009 - 06:25 PM

Tian Wenhua got a life sentence. Here's the story from the BBC.

Chinese milk scam duo face death

Two men have been given the death penalty for their involvement in China's contaminated milk scandal.

The former boss of the Sanlu dairy at the centre of the scandal was given life imprisonment.

They are among 21 sentences being handed down by the court in northern China, where Sanlu is based.

The scandal, in which melamine was added to raw milk to make it appear higher in protein, led to the deaths of six babies and made some 300,000 ill.

It caused outrage in China and has tainted the image of the country's food industry both at home and abroad.

The most senior figure to be sentenced was Tian Wenhua, who was chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, the largest producer of baby milk powder.

When the scandal broke in September, it emerged that Sanlu had known it was selling toxic milk - and allowed around 900 tonnes of it to leave its dairies.

It was only when its New Zealand partner intervened that production stopped.

Tian Wenhua pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard produce in December.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang gave her a life sentence and ordered her to pay a fine of 20m yuan ($2.9m).

Sanlu itself was fined 50m yuan ($7.3m), Xinhua news agency reports, even though the firm has been declared bankrupt.

Three other former Sanlu executives were given between five years and 15 years.

Earlier the court sentenced Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping to death.

Zhang Yujun was accused of running an illegal workshop in Shandong province in eastern China, producing 600 tonnes of the fake protein powder - the largest source of melamine in the country.

He was sentenced along with Zhang Yanzhang - accused of selling on Zhang Yujun's protein powder - who was given a life sentence.

Milk producer, Geng Jinping had been convicted of producing and selling toxic food to dairy companies.

His associate Geng Jinzhu was given eight years in prison.

Gao Junjie, who was also accused of selling protein powder to milk producers, received a suspended death sentence, Xinhua said.

The scandal left parents terrified and caused outrage across the country, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says.

It came only four years after an earlier milk powder scandal left 13 babies dead.

The government has scrambled to fight off allegations that it reacted slowly to the latest crisis, by pledging to improve food safety standards and promising to bring the culprits of the scandal to court.

But families of the victims say China's lack of openness, public accountability and official corruption mean they have little faith that similar poisonings will not happen again, our correspondent reports.

All together, 22 companies sold contaminated milk, which had been supplied by a chain of melamine producers and middlemen.

The dealers added the industrial chemical to boost the apparent protein content of milk, which had often been watered down to make more money.

Major dairy companies bought the milk from such dealers, failing to test the milk for purity and nutritional value.

The result was widespread poisoning of babies, the group most vulnerable to tainted milk as it was their only food source.

Kidney damage was reported in hundreds of thousands of people. At least six babies were killed because of it.

Cambronne
Post Roaster

Joined: Feb 23, 2008
Posts: 4217

Posted: Jan 22, 2009 - 06:48 PM

But who is going to say that such crime is widespread in China and is the work of the average Chinese - those that Confucius and Deng "Greed is Good" Xiaoping have inspired? This country needs a cultural revolution.

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