Eight KG Uranium Missing and Four Men on Trial
Eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of uranium have been missing while four Chinese men are on trial for trying to sell the uranium that can be used to make nuclear weapons, official Xinhua reported August 23, 2007. The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported Friday that as many as 20 people may have been sickened after contact with the uranium.
On the morning of August 22, four men from Hunan Province went on trial at Tianhe District Court, in southern Guangdong Province, on charges of illegal trade of dangerous materials. During the trial, the four pleaded guilty for attempting to broker a sale of uranium. [1]
From April 2005 through January 2007, Zhang Sangang, Yang Guoliang,Li Huibin and Li Zian attempted to find buyers for eight kilograms of uranium, (isotopes U-235 and U-238)
Zhang confessed that in April 2005, he met with a mine owner Zhou through his own nephew. Zhang agreed to find a buyer for Zhou＇s uranium products
Li Zian met a businessman, surnamed Peng, who allegedly had located a Hong Kong buyer willing to pay 1.6 million yuan (210,000 dollars) per kilogram.
Yang took samples to Zhang at a hotel in Human, who forgot to bring the samples with him when leaving the hotel. Yang stated to police that these samples could not be located, most likely thrown away by hotel staff as trash.
In January 2007, they were caught carrying a sample by police in Guangzhou.
The Hong Kong Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported on August 24, 2006 that as many as 20 people may have been sickened after contact with the uranium.[2]
According to reports, the case will remain open until the uranium is found.[3]
Article 125 of Chinese Criminal Law provides that whoever illegally trades in or transports nuclear materials shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death.
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