A provincial work safety official went on trial Thursday on
charges connected with a coal mine flooding that left 121 people
dead last August.
Hu Jianchang, former deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial
Administration for Work Safety, was charged with dereliction of
duty and accepting bribes, sources with the Guangzhou Municipal
Intermediate People's Court said.
The flooding occurred at 1:30 PM on August 7 at Daxing Coal Mine
in the southern Guangdong city of Xingning. Four miners
escaped at the time, and rescue teams worked for 23 days to find
the bodies of 121 others.
The tragedy caused a direct economic loss of 47.25 million yuan
(about US$6 million).
Hu is charged with accepting bribes from mine owner Zeng Yungao
from April 2003 to July 2005, sources with the court said.
He issued a production license for the mine in violation of the
regulations on June 7 last year, just two months before the
disaster.
Sixty-three people have already been penalized in connection
with the incident, the provincial discipline supervision
authorities have said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2006)