2 get death in China milk scandal; furor continues
The chairwoman of the dairy company that manufactured tainted baby formula was ordered to spend the rest of her life in prison, while two lesser-known figures got death sentences in China’s largest food-tampering scandal.
The stiff sentences handed down by the court in Shijaizhuang, Hebei province, were designed to stem public anger. But many parents of sickened babies vowed to continue an uphill fight for more compensation from the dairy industry.
Tian Wenhua, the 66-year-old chairwoman of Sanlu Group, the manufacturer of the baby formula involved in many of the deaths, was given a life sentence. Tian, a former Communist Party official, was the highest ranking of 21 people who have been tried in the case.
Nearly 300,000 Chinese babies were sickened and six died after drinking formula that had been laced with melamine, an additive that allows watered-down milk to pass quality tests. It was widely sold as “protein powder” in Hebei province, though the additive was known to cause kidney disease.
The death penalty went to Zhang Yujun, 40, a former dairy farmer convicted of endangering public security by selling 600 tons of the melamine power, and Geng Jinping, 48, convicted of selling poisonous food. Another man got a suspended death sentence, which in effect means life in prison.
Teng Biao, a lawyer for some of the parents, said the men sentenced to death were scapegoats.
“This involved the whole political and social system,” Teng said. “There were politicians and bureaucrats who should have taken more responsibility as well.”
He said parents of the victims would attempt to pursue their lawsuits in civil courts, but that in most cases, courts had rejected the suits.
Many parents are unhappy about a compensation package that they say doesn’t even cover their out-of-pocket medical costs so far.
Although footage from the trials was aired on Chinese state television, all but a few handpicked journalists were banned from the courtroom.
Chen Li, mother of one of the sickened babies, said Thursday that she hoped the death penalty would deter others from similar crimes.
“People have to pay for the evil things they have done,” Chen said. “They have to execute at least one to warn the others. Otherwise, it will be a vicious cycle and things will never get better.”
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Nicole Liu of The Times’ Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.
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