15 jailed in China's unsafe edible oil case

KUNMING - Fifteen people in Southwest China's Yunnan province were given prison terms on Friday ranging from five years to life for producing and selling unsafe cooking oil or providing production materials, a local court said.

Zhao Jianguo, who has a 70 percent stake in two edible oil manufacturers implicated in the case, was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life and had all his personal property confiscated, at Qujing city's intermediate people's court.

Wu Qingwei, who has a 30 percent stake in the two companies, was given 18 years and ordered to pay a fine of 750,000 yuan ($12,300).

Another 13 defendants were given terms ranging from five to 10 years.

The two companies were fined a total of 300 million yuan.

Between 2002 and 2012, the two firms bought a total of 28,900 tons of nonfood materials - pork and fish processing waste - and used it to make "edible" pork oil which was sold to several cities in Yunnan.