Cctv newsOn March 21 last year, Tianjiayi Chemical Co., Ltd. in Xiangshui Eco-chemical Park, Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, spontaneously ignited due to the continuous accumulation of heat and temperature of nitrated waste stored illegally for a long time, and the burning caused the explosion of nitrated waste, resulting in 78 deaths, 76 serious injuries and 640 hospitalizations.
Yesterday (November 30th), the Intermediate People’s Court of Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province and seven grass-roots people’s courts under its jurisdiction, including Xiangshui, Sheyang and Binhai, publicly pronounced in the first instance 22 criminal cases involved in the "March 21st" extraordinarily serious explosion accident of Jiangsu Xiangshui Tianjiayi Chemical Co., Ltd., and sentenced 7 defendant units and 53 defendants according to law.
The court found through trial that the main person in charge of Tianjiayi Company was appointed by its holding company, Jiangsu Nijiaxiang Group Co., Ltd., and major management decisions needed to be decided and approved by Nijiaxiang Group. Nijiaxiang Group and Tianjiayi Company jointly decided to commit illegal acts and let Tianjiayi Company illegally store dangerous substances, which eventually caused heavy casualties and property losses.
The court made a first-instance judgment according to law, and sentenced 7 defendant units and 53 defendants to punishment according to law. Among them, Zhang Qinyue, the former general manager and legal representative of Tianjiayi Company, committed the crime of illegally storing dangerous substances, polluting the environment and bribing the unit, and decided to execute a fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years, deprive him of his political rights for five years and impose a fine of 1.55 million yuan.
Nijiaxiang Group was fined 20 million yuan for the crime of illegally storing dangerous substances, and the former and current chairman, general manager and legal representative of the group, Wu Yuezhong and Ni Chengliang, were sentenced to 12 years in prison and 13 years in prison respectively, and deprived of political rights.
Freeman Yang, Tao Zaiming, former deputy general managers of Tianjiayi Company, Geng Hong, safety director, Jiang Lihua, chief of safety department, five safety officers, and Zhang Huide, operator of local loading and unloading service department, were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from nine years to one year and six months.
Six intermediaries, including Yancheng Environmental Monitoring Center, committed the crime of providing false supporting documents or the crime of issuing false supporting documents, and were sentenced to fines ranging from 1 million yuan to 100,000 yuan respectively. Twenty-two responsible persons, including Yang Haojie, deputy director of the laboratory of Yancheng Environmental Monitoring Center, were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from four years to nine months for the crime of providing false supporting documents or issuing false supporting documents, and were also fined.
Sun Feng, the former director of Xiangshui County Emergency Management Bureau, and other 15 national public officials were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from seven years and six months to three years and three months for dereliction of duty and bribery respectively.