15 punished for toxic slick in river
By Li Wenfang in Guangzhou and Guo Nei in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-27 06:48

Fifteen people have been found responsible for the toxic cadmium slick in Beijiang River in South China's Guangdong Province on December 15.

Ten employees of the Shaoguan Smelting Plant and the Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co have been punished accordingly by the government and the Communist Party of China.

The CPC's Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Provincial Department of Supervision made the announcement Wednesday.

Three of the smelting plant employees held directly responsible for the accident and suspected of criminal offences have been handed over to the public security authorities for further investigation. They are a deputy head for production safety, chief for drainage of a subsidiary of the plant and a division chief of the sewage treatment station of a subsidiary.

Two more were forced to write a self-criticism.

The slick was caused by the spilling of more than 1,000 tons of heavy cadmium contaminated water from the smelting plant.

Two senior officials in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for offering bribes to the former head of the top provincial advisory body Han Guizhi, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Harbin Intermediate People's Court made the judgment on Wednesday over the former secretary of the Jixi Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Ding Naijin, and the former director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Local Taxation Bureau, Zhang Xinyuan.

Han was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve late last year for accepting 7.02 million yuan (US$875,000) in bribes.

According to sources with the court, Ding offered bribes of 110,000 yuan (US$13,600) to Han from 1996 to 2000 for a promotion.

Ding also accepted bribes of 6.2 million yuan (US$765,000) since 1997.

As for Zhang, he accepted bribes of 4.9 million yuan (US$604,000) between 1997 and 2004.