A Chinese court has handed a suspended death sentence to a chemical factory chief and imprisoned another 48 people over blasts in the northern port city of Tianjin which killed 165 people last year and destroyed thousands of new cars. The city is also home to numerous car and autoparts factories whose output was affected by the disaster at the port.
Authorities acted after the massive explosions at a chemical warehouse sparked widespread anger in China, the Daily Telegraph said. An official investigation blamed hazardous materials being improperly or illegally stored at the facility that was built close to residential areas by local company Ruihai Logistics. Company chairman Yu Xuewei was handed the suspended death sentence, and was also fined more than CNY700,000 (about US $100,000) over the disaster. Suspended death sentences are generally commuted to life in prison in China.
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"Ruihai Logistics bears the main responsibility," the court ruling said, according to state news agency Xinhua. "The company was found to have ignored industrial safety rules and violated municipal district planning by illegally setting up a hazardous materials storage yard."
The blasts last August left 798 people injured, and another eight people missing. They damaged more than 300 buildings, 12,000 cars and 7,000 containers, causing losses estimated at almost CNY7bn, the paper said. Twenty five officials and 11 people employed by a company which supplied Ruihai with fake licences were also jailed.
Liu Shixin, a law professor with Tianjin's Nankai University, told Xinhua: "The court considered the case a 'severe' one because Yu illegally obtained the certificate, hoarded many hazardous materials for long periods of time, and ignored safety rules for handling such materials."
