June 24, 2011

Tainted milk case in north China sends four to prison

Four people in China's Hebei Province were sentenced to prison Thursday (June 24) by a local court for producing and selling melamine-tainted milk powder.

According to a spokesman with the People's Court of Xushui County, Cui Weizhong, legal representative of the Yongxing Dairy Co., was given a five-year sentence for blending 500 kilogrammes of milk powder tainted with melamine into the company's products over the past two years.

The court also fined him RMB150,000 (US$23,000) and his company RMB250,000 (US$39,000).

Liu Dan, a company lab technician, was sentenced to jail for three years and given a RMB100,000 (US$15,000) fine for assisting in the production of the tainted milk powder, said the spokesman.

The court also sentenced two others, Dang Yao and Mi Pengyong, to three years and 18 months in jail, respectively, for selling the contaminated milk powder to Cui in 2009.

They were both fined RMB10,000 (US$1,500).