45 convicted for deadly landslide

Forty-five people were convicted on Friday by three courts in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, for their involvement in a deadly landslide that killed 73 people.

Four people also remain missing after the landslide at a construction waste disposal site in Shenzhen’s Guangming new district on Dec 20, 2015.

The accident destroyed 33 buildings and caused direct economic losses of 880 million yuan ($127.5 million), the courts found.

Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, Nanshan District People’s Court and Baoan District People’s Court found that the tragedy was a result of irregular subcontracting, loose management, corruption as well as dereliction of duty.

Twenty-six executives and employees from Shenzhen Lyuwei Properties Management and Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment and Development were convicted of causing a serious accident and giving bribes to government officials.

Long Renfu, chairman of Yixianglong, was sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined 10 million yuan.

The other 19 were local government workers. They were charged with abuse of authority, taking bribes or dereliction of duty.

Meng Jinghang, former director of the Shenzhen Urban Management Bureau, was sentenced for 20 years and fined 8 million yuan for taking bribes and abusing his powers.