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Snack-shop poisoner is tried, sentenced to death

A snack shop owner in China's eastern city of Nanjing was sentenced to death yesterday for killing 42 people by lacing a competitor's food with rat poison, court officials said.

Chen Zhenping, who was arrested a fortnight ago, was sentenced by the Nanjing Number One Intermediate People's Court after a half-day trial.

"Under the law, he has 10 days to appeal the verdict. If he does not file an appeal, Jiangsu province's high court will review the verdict and then make a final decision on whether Chen will be executed," a court official told AFP.

The sentencing follows one of China's worst public health disasters in recent years.

Chen was arrested on September 14, a day after hundreds of people fell ill from eating breakfast snacks bought from a shop in Tangshan township in Nanjing city, state media reports at the time said.

Chen, who owned another snack shop in Tangshan, reportedly confessed to the crime, saying he poisoned fried dough sticks, sesame cakes and glutinous rice prepared by the Zhengwu Pastry Bar because he was jealous of the shop's success.

"Because of business competition, he was full of hatred for the Zhengwu shop's owner and then he set the poison and committed the crime," state television news said.

As of now, a total of 42 people have died, while more than 300 were affected to varying extents after eating the poison-laced breakfasts, the People's Daily Web site said.

The poisoning caused appalling scenes in the city, with eyewitnesses reporting victims collapsing on the streets bleeding from the mouth and ears.

State media also reported yesterday that a couple in north China had died and their daughter was critically ill after they ate a meal tainted with the same type of rat poison which killed those in Nanjing.

Mass food poisonings are not infrequent in China, and are commonly caused by low standards of hygiene and treatment of food.

However, cases where rat poison is used deliberately to harm others are increasing, according to a state media report.

"It has already become the main convenient tool for murder. Why? Because it's too convenient to buy rat poison," Health News said last week.

Nationwide, 100,000 people are poisoned each year, with 50,000 to 70,000 of them falling victim to rat poison, the report in the Health News said.

The Nanjing mass poisoning has prompted officials in other cities, including Beijing, to send health inspectors to restaurants, markets and other places in the food industry to stop the use of dangerous rat poisons, including those that are already banned.
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