Society

21 stand trial for CCTV building fire

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-23 13:19

BEIJING - Twenty-one people implicated in a deadly fire that burned a section of the newly built China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters last year stood trial at a court in Beijing on Tuesday.

But the first-instance court hearing held in the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court Tuesday morning was closed to media.

The No.2 branch of Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate has confirmed that all of the defendants including Xu Wei, former head of the broadcaster's construction office, were charged with causing an accident with dangerous goods, apart from other crimes.

An illegal fireworks display caused the blaze on February 9, 2009 in the 30-story building in Beijing's Central Business District, which left one firemen dead and eight others injured, including six firemen and two construction workers. It caused direct economic losses of more than 160 million yuan (23.44 million USdollars).

In February, a statement from the State Council said its probe found 71 people responsible for the fire. Forty-four of them would face criminal charges while 27 others would suffer Party and administrative disciplinary actions.