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Tainted-Milk Activist Zhao May Be Freed on Medical Parole, Xinhua Reports

By Bloomberg News - 2010-11-23T06:35:46Z

China may free Zhao Lianhai, a tainted-milk activist sentenced to two and a half years in jail, on medical parole, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Beijing’s Daxing district court.

Zhao was charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” by organizing illegal gatherings and shouting slogans in Beijing and northern Shijiazhuang city on the issue of “problem milk powder” from October 2008 to September 2009, it said. He also organized a protest in front of the Beijing public security authority on August 4, 2009, causing a traffic jam, Xinhua said, without elaborating.

At least six babies died and 300,000 fell ill across China, the world’s third-largest milk producer, after drinking milk tainted by industrial chemicals in 2008. Zhao, whose son was sickened by melamine-tainted milk, was arrested late last year, according to Amnesty International.

The former chairwoman of Sanlu Group Co., the company at the center of the scandal, was jailed for life and three other people were given death sentences for their role in the sale of the milk. China’s Vice Premier Li Keqiang has led a special food safety commission since the incident.

The government is also trying to set up a registration system to trace all melamine in the market from wholesalers to retailers, in order to prevent it from being used to make the protein content appear higher in diluted milk, the State Council said in September.

Zhao didn’t file for an appeal to his sentence and confessed that he was guilty as charged, according to the report. Xinhua didn’t say when Zhao will be freed from prison.

An official who answered the phone at the court’s publicity department declined to give her name and said the court won’t comment on the issue and declined to send Bloomberg News a copy of the court’s statement.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick Harrington at pharrington8@bloomberg.net