CAI YUANHAN, a part-time safety officer for a renewable resources company in Longgang District, has filed an appeal against a guilty verdict handed down by a Longgang court in June, demanding that he be acquitted of a crime related to a fatal fire in 2012.

    Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court heard the case Thursday.

    A fire broke out in a tin shack at a scrap yard in Nanwan Subdistrict at about 3 a.m. Aug. 3, 2012. Three adults and one child were killed in the fire.

    Six people, including the appellant, were given jail terms ranging from one and a half years to three years in June by Longgang District People’s Court. They were all charged with significant labor safety accident crimes.

    Zhong Zhijun, manager of the scrap yard, was given a jail term of three years for failing to fulfill his duty of ensuring the safety of employees.

    Luo Changbing and Feng Shenghua were sentenced to two and a half years for collecting and processing scrap foam and failing to provide training to employees, leading to the fatal fire.

    Cai, the safety officer of the renewable resources company that owns the scrap yard, was given the lightest sentence of one and a half years with a two-year reprieve. He was found to have failed to take measures after spotting and reporting safety hazards.

    During Thursday’s court hearing, Cai’s lawyer argued that Cai wrote the penitential letter just to get leniency and that the letter was not an expression of his real feelings. The lawyer also said that Cai should be acquitted of any crime because he had fulfilled his duty by reporting the hazards, but that rectifying safety hazards did not fall within the scope of his duty.

    The presiding judge said Thursday that Cai was given a suspended sentence because he confessed to his crime. If Cai pleads not guilty and the intermediate court finds him guilty, he will not be given a suspended sentence and will have to serve his term in prison.

    The trial is ongoing.

    (SD News)