Chinese party official gets death sentence for bridge collapse

The trial was widely reported in the Chinese media. The other 12 accused, including the contractor, engineer, materials supplier and several officials, received prison terms ranging from three to 13 years.

The trial was aired live on central television, with the station setting up a hotline for people to raise questions about the case and commentary sought from legal experts.

Liu Zejun, 40, board chairman of a trading company, received the stiffest term of 13 years jail and a 300,000 yuan fine. He was also denied his political rights for three years.

Liu, togetherwith Hu Kaiming, 52, head of the Chongqing Urban Industries Group, was found guilty of producing and selling goods that failed to meet safety standards.

Hu received an eight-year jail sentence and a 250,000 yuan fine. The other defendants — Duan Hao, Fei Shangli, Li Mengze, Xia Fulin and Yan Ke– were found guilty of causing a serious safety-related mishap and fined between 3 0,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan and jailed for between six and ten years.

Wang Yuankai, 53, was fined 250,000 yuan and sentenced to seven years for manufacturing products which did not meet safety standards.

Fei and Li had taken charge of the bridge’s construction, while Duan Hao was the director of the local construction design institute.

Liu, Hu and Wang had supplied the steel for the defective the Rainbow Bridge which collapsed on January 4, plunging an unknown number of people into the water below. At least 40 died and 14 were injured in the incident at the 100 m bridge in Qijiang county, about 100 km from Chongqing.

Just afew weeks ago, the first court proceedings against five senior officials from Qijiang county for in the Rainbow Bridge incident opened and was televised.

That hearing was only the second case televised live in China and the first implicating high-ranking officials. Zhang Kaike, former party secretary of Qijiang county, is also being investigated for dereliction of duty, state media reported Friday.