TAIYUAN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- A court in north China's Shanxi Province on Friday handed down jail terms to 41 people convicted of causing serious accidents, failing to report safety accidents and bribery related to a series of major mining accidents.
The court in Yuanping City in the province found that defendants Pan Dangren and Wang Sudong committed a range of illegal or non-compliant acts, including awarding excavation and mining contracts to multiple teams lacking mining qualifications, failing to formulate complete emergency rescue plans and deploying unlicensed vehicles in production.
These acts led to 48 major fatal accidents and 54 deaths between 2006 and 2022.
Defendants Chen Kaisong, Chen Lipu and several other contracting team leaders and subcontractors neglected their required reporting responsibilities, delaying rescue efforts after some accidents.
Pan and Wang, seeking improper benefits, gave property to state functionaries multiple times, constituting the crime of bribery.
The court sentenced the defendants to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 16 years to one year based on the facts, harmful consequences and other elements of each defendant's crimes and their roles. ■
