Four employees of the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, including an Australian citizen, were convicted by a Chinese court on Monday and sentenced to seven to 14 years in prison for accepting millions of dollars in bribes and stealing commercial secrets.
A three-judge panel at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court sentenced Stern Hu, an Australian citizen, to seven years in jail for bribery and five years on stealing secrets, but he will serve 10 years in prison.
The case has drawn international attention and even led to diplomatic wrangling between China and Australia over concerns that the four employees had been arrested on trumped up charges and questions about whether they could get a fair trial here.
At a three-day trial that took place here early last week, the four employees all pleaded guilty to accepting some bribes, though several of the men denied stealing commercial secrets.
The four employees — three of whom are Chinese citizens — were detained in Shanghai last July on suspicions of espionage and stealing state secrets from Chinese state-owned steel companies.
But after protests from Australia and foreign executives about the nature of the accusations, the men were formally charged with bribery and stealing commercial secrets, which are lesser charges.
Some Australian officials and foreign executives said the arrests looked like retaliation against Rio Tinto because of its tough negotiations over iron ore prices with Chinese state-run steel mills and the company’s decision last summer to scrap plans to accept a $19.5 billion investment from one of China’s biggest mining companies.
The Australian government was due to issue a statement shortly after the verdict was released.
Lawyers for the four employees have said they were considering an appeal.
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