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China dairy executive appeals life sentence in contaminated milk scandal

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former Sanlu Group chairwoman Tian Wenhua on Sunday appealed the life sentence she received after pleading guilty to charges in China's tainted milk scandal. Tian's lawyer claims it was not his client who decided to sell milk with higher levels of melamine, but a board member tabbed by New Zealand dairy firm Fonterra, which held a large share in Sanlu Group. Tian's appeal to the Higher People's Court of Hebei Province asserts that the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court lacked evidence to support a conviction for manufacturing and selling fake or substandard products. In December 2008, a court ordered at-fault dairy companies to pay $160 million in compensation to the victims' families. In January, lawyers for the families of 213 Chinese children sickened or killed by the contaminated milk petitioned the Supreme People's Court, China's highest court, to hear a class action lawsuit against 22 dairy companies involved in the contamination, seeking more than $5 million in damages. Early last month, police in China detained five parents of children who became sick after drinking melamine-tainted milk, preventing the parents from participating in a news conference.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 01, 2009 (boomark / email).