Lawmaker jailed over giant sinkhole
Print Edition
A lawmaker was yesterday sentenced to five years in jail for trying to dig a basement under his Beijing home so deep it created a giant sinkhole that swallowed four of his neighbors’ houses.
Li Baojun and two men he hired to expand his courtyard home five stories underground had violated construction safety regulations, the Beijing Xicheng District People’s Court ruled.
The sinkhole also resulted in the collapse of a major thoroughfare in the capital, causing more than 5 million yuan (US$750,000) in damage, it said on its official microblog.
The trio’s actions “endangered public safety” and they were “deeply responsible for the criminal accident,” the court said.
Li’s house, in a historic neighborhood in Xicheng district, was also brought down when his ambitious extension plans went awry in January 2015.
Fifteen of his neighbors were reportedly left homeless, although no one was injured.
Photos posted online and in Chinese state media showed a gaping 10-meter-deep hole extending into a roadway, blocked off by tarpaulins and traffic cones.
Li is a member of the local people’s congress in the eastern city of Xuzhou and heads an auto parts company, the court said.
A total of 1,400 cubic meters of concrete were needed to fill the hole.
Despite decades of development, the center of the Chinese capital still has pockets of ancient courtyard homes with traditional roofs, packed along narrow alleys. Some have been renovated into luxury residences that can command huge rents.
Li had been granted a permit to restore the courtyard, but not to build a basement.
He said he needed to consider whether he would appeal.
Also convicted in yesterday’s court trial were Lu Zufu, director of the construction company, who was sentenced to three and half years in prison, and another defendant Li Hailun, who was given a three-year suspended sentence. Neither held residential construction permits.
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