Little satisfaction in China after tainted-milk trial

BEIJING — Parents of babies sickened by formula in China's largest food-tampering scandal vowed Thursday to continue their legal fight over compensation after a court sentenced two men to death in the scandal and handed out stiff sentences to others.

The sentences were given by a court in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, where the trial took place last month. Those sentenced to death were Zhang Yujun, found guilty for endangering public security, and Geng Jinping, found guilty of selling poisonous foods. Another man was given a suspended death sentence, which in effect means life in prison.

Tian Wenhua, 66, chairwoman of Sanlu Group, the manufacturer of the baby formula involved in many of the deaths, was given a life sentence. Tian, a former Communist party official, was the highest ranking of 21 people who have stood trial so far in the scandal.

During her Dec. 31 trial, Tian admitted she had known of problems with her company's products for months before informing authorities. She pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard dairy products.

Some of the relatives of the victims, who gathered outside the court in cold weather in northern China, said Tian got off lightly.

"My granddaughter died. She (Tian) should die too, she should be shot," said Zheng Shuzhen, of Henan province, who said her 1-year-old granddaughter died in June after drinking Sanlu milk. "She has brought such harm to the public, to children."

Nearly 300,000 Chinese babies were sickened and six died after drinking formula that had been spiked with melamine, an additive that allows watered-down milk to pass quality tests.

It was widely sold under the name "protein powder" in Hebei province, a center of the dairy industry, despite the fact that the additive was known to cause kidney disease.

Teng Biao, a lawyer for some of the parents, said the men handed the death sentence were scapegoats in a failed product-safety system and more needed to be done.

"This involved the whole political and social system," Teng said. "There were politicians and bureaucrats who should have taken more responsibility as well."

Although footage from the trials aired on Chinese state television, all but a few hand-picked journalists were banned from attending.

Parents were also kept out, and at least two were detained Thursday in Beijing in an apparent attempt to prevent them from traveling to Shijiazhuang for the sentencing.

Many parents are unhappy about a compensation settlement that they say the Chinese government has forced them to accept.

Chen Li, a mother of one of the sickened babies, said Thursday she hoped the death penalty would deter others from similar crimes.

"People have to pay for the evil things they have done," Chen said. "They have to execute at least one to warn the others. Otherwise, it will be a vicious cycle and things will never get better."

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.