Victims of the collapse of the Weiguan Jinlong Complex yesterday cried foul and called for more severe punishments after the Tainan District Court sentenced its developer and builders to five years in prison.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Kaohsiung’s Meinong (美濃) on Feb. 6, toppling the building in Tainan, killing 115 people, injuring 96 and leaving 289 homeless.
The court yesterday sentenced Weiguan Jinlong developer Lin Ming-hui (林明輝), architects Chang Kuei-pao (張魁寶) and Cheng Chin-kuei (鄭進貴), Weiguan design department’s Hung Hsien-han (洪仙汗) and structural engineer Cheng Tung-hsu (鄭東旭) to five years in prison and fines of NT$900,000 each.
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
The verdict in the first trial can be appealed.
Former Weiguan residents Yang Wei-ning (楊惟甯) and her husband, Hung Chia-yi (洪家益), said they were unhappy with the ruling.
The couple were among the last to be rescued from the rubble. Hung lost both his legs in the incident.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
Yang said she tried not to think too much about the earthquake, but she followed the trial.
The sentences were too light, she said, adding: “Even if Lin and the architects had paid with their lives, it would not be enough.”
Yang said the defendants only have to spend five years in prison, while those affected by the building’s collapse have to live with its effect for the rest of their lives.
Photo: Lin Meng-ting, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said that while Lin admitted he had not done his best to supervise the construction, he refused to plead guilty, as did the other defendants.
Prosecutors charged the five with taking shortcuts and altering the project’s design and construction process to cut expenses and skimming funds meant for building materials, which affected the complex’s structural integrity.
They sought to charge the defendants with breaching architectural regulations in the Criminal Code, which would have added three years to each sentence, but the construction license was issued in November 1992 and the statute of limitations had expired.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
The defendants were given the maximum sentence for criminal negligence, they said.
This story has been corrected since it was first published.
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