A Shanxi court has jailed a county chief and a gold mine owner for 15 years and 11 years for the deaths of 38 gold miners in an accident in June last year which they covered up, Xinhua reported yesterday.
Wang Yanping, former chief of Fanzhi county, was found guilty by Xinzhou Intermediate People's Court of accepting 229,200 yuan (HK$215,450) in bribes from operators of the Yixingzhai gold mine in April last year and allowing them to run the mine without licences. Wang was also fined 30,000 yuan.
Yang Linhe, owner of the gold mine, was found guilty of accepting 100,000 yuan in bribes and sub-contracting the mine's operation to unqualified people. Yang was jailed for 11 years and fined 10,000 yuan.
Among those offering the bribes, Yin San and Yang Hailong were arrested in July and August last year and have been charged with hiding the victims' bodies and covering up the accident.
The accident was a huge embarrassment to the Shanxi authorities. Local officials not only accepted kickbacks from the operators but also bribed reporters from Xinhua to publish reports which said only two miners were killed.
The tragedy was exposed by reporters from the Huashang Daily in neighbouring Shaanxi province who published reports contradicting the accounts released by Xinhua. The exposure led to intervention by the central government which sent investigators to Shanxi and found that 38 miners had been killed and mine operators had set fire to some of the bodies to destroy evidence.
