Wan Ruizhong, a Communist Party official, was sentenced...

Wan Ruizhong, a Communist Party official, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes to cover up a mine accident that killed 81 people. The accident took place in Longquan tin mine on 17 July, 2001 in Nandan county, Guangxi Province. Initially over 300 miners were believed to be missing. A high level investigation team was set up by the party and the government on the causes of and responsibilities for the accident, and found serious malpractices and corruption had led to illegal and dangerous operations at the mine. Wan Ruizhong, the general secretary of the Party committee of Nandan, was among the top party and government officials who were first arrested for responsibility for the disaster last year (the other were county chief of Nandan, Tang Yusheng, the deputy county chief, Wei Xueguang, and the deputy secretary, Mo Zhuanglong,) and were removed from their posts and put under investigation. On 12 March, 2002, 15 people were sentenced by the High People's Court of the Guangxi Zhuang Minority Autonomous Region to imprisonment and fines on corruption charges for causing a the accident. On 9 January, 2002, the deputy chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Minority Autonomous Region government, Wang Hanmin, was found to be responsible for the incident and received administrative penalties from the State Council. The court also ruled Wan Ruizhong delayed rescue attempts. Three others received jail sentences.