Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

Thursday, January 22, 2009

SHIJIAZHUANG, China  —  A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced two men to death for their role in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six children, while the woman most widely blamed for the tragedy got life in jail.

Nearly 300,000 children fell ill last year after drinking milk intentionally laced with melamine, a toxic industrial compound that can give a fake positive on protein tests.

"She should have been shot," said Zheng Shuzhen, a 48-year-old who said her granddaughter died in June of kidney failure after drinking Sanlu milk formula. She said the girl was not on official lists of victims as she died before the scandal came to light.

"So many children died but they kept the official number down so that she could get life (in jail), not death," Zheng added.

Tian was also fined 24.5 million yuan ($3.6 million). Sanlu, partly owned by New Zealand's Fonterra dairy cooperative, was fined 49 million yuan.

Claims of official concealment and indifference have turned the milk powder case into a volatile political issue for the ruling Communist Party, which is wary of protests.

One of the men sentenced to death was Zhang Yujun, who had made and sold over 600 tonnes of "protein powder" laced with melamine between October 2007 and August 2008, the official China Daily quoted prosecutors as saying earlier this month.

The powder was bought by middlemen who added it to pooled, watered-down milk from farmers that was then sold on to Sanlu. One of these men was also given the death sentence.