SHENZHEN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Forty five people were sentenced in Shenzhen on Friday afternoon for their parts in a landslide that left 73 dead and four others missing in December 2015.

 

The suspects, mostly from Hong Ao landfill, the Yixianglong company which managed the dump site and local governments were tried in the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen, the People's Court of Nanshan district and the People's Court of Bao'an district from April 26 through 28.

 

Long Renfu, boss of Shenzhen Yixianglong, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 10 million yuan (about 1.5 million U.S. dollars) for bribery and negligence which led to the accident.

 

The dump site had a planned storage of four million cubic meters and a maximum stack height of 95 meters, but when the accident happened, its actual storage reached 5.83 million cubic meters and the waste heaps stood as high as 160 meters.

 

Meng Jinghang, former head of the city administration bureau of Shenzhen, was convicted of abuse of power and taking bribes of 24.9 million yuan and 800,000 Hong Kong dollars. He was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and fined eight million yuan.

 

Peng Shuiqing, former head of the Guangming New District management bureau of the Urban Planning, Land and Resources Commission of Shenzhen, was sentenced to 16 years and fined one million yuan for the same offences.

 

Another 17 government officials were sentenced to three to seven years in jail for negligence and abuses of power. Another 25 also received penalties.

 

The landslide occurred when a huge waste pile collapsed. The accident resulted in a direct economic loss of 880 million yuan, and was believed to be caused by mismanagement rather than any geological reasons.