China has charged 48 government and mining officials and 10 journalists with covering up a deadly mine accident to avoid embarrassing Beijing ahead of last year’s Olympics, state media said yesterday.
The mining accident on July 14 last year in Hebei Province near Beijing killed 34 miners and was covered up for 85 days, the China Daily said.
The charges stated that mine bosses and officials in Yuxian County relocated bodies, destroyed evidence and paid journalists 2.6 million yuan (US$380,000) to cover up the disaster, the report said.
“Relatives of the dead were kept quiet thanks to large payments and threats,” the paper said.
The identities of the journalists have not been revealed, the paper said.
Yuxian County is about 80km west of Beijing.
The bribery charges followed an investigation into the cover-up by China’s Cabinet, the State Council, the report said.
It was not immediately clear when the trials would take place, but the paper said one of the 10 journalists was tried in April for taking bribes from Yuxian County officials. The report did not specify the outcome of that trial.
The officials also took out 250,000 yuan in advertisements from the newspaper that employed the journalist and paid 30,000 yuan in subscription fees, it said.
More than 3,200 miners were killed in China’s mines last year, official figures showed, but worker’s rights groups said the number was much bigger because accidents are covered up to avoid costly mine shutdowns and fines.
China’s coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety often ignored in the quest for profits and a drive to meet surging demand for coal, the source of about 70 percent of China’s energy.
On Nov. 21, 108 miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in Heilongjiang Province.
Meanwhile, a former senior judge awaiting trial in a massive organized crime crackdown in southwest China hung himself in jail using the drawstring of his underwear, state media said yesterday.
Wu Xiaoqing (烏小青), 57, was found hanging from his detention cell doorway in Chongqing city on Saturday afternoon and pronounced dead several hours later after being rushed to hospital, the Xinhua news agency said.
A former director at Chongqing’s high court, Wu had been charged with accepting 3.5 million yuan in bribes and being unable to explain the source of 5.2 million yuan in his possession, the report said.
Wu’s case was one of a series in a huge mafia crackdown that has rocked Chongqing and implicated up to 200 city officials, including the former head of the city’s judiciary and the deputy chief justice of the high court.
The officials are charged with accepting large sums of money to protect organized crime and illegal gambling rackets. Up to 1,500 alleged mafia figures have been detained, state press reports have said.
He hung himself with the drawstring of his cotton underwear from the door of his cell, which was out of range of a closed circuit camera in the jail, the report said.
His cellmates were napping at the time, it said, while two detention center guards are being investigated over the suicide. Wu left a note, but its contents have not been publicized.
Wu’s suicide adds another chapter to the Chongqing cases that have gripped the nation with lurid tales of sex and corruption in the municipality, which boasts a population of more than 30 million.
So far six people have been sentenced to death and scores of others jailed for up to life in prison.
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