A Chinese court has sentenced 49 culprits to jail with penalties ranging from one-year imprisonment to a suspended death sentence. The sentences are for the possession of lethal items that led to the death of 173 people and damaged billions of dollars worth of property after an explosion at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin last year.

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Of the 49 people sentenced, 25 were government officials who were strongly accused of the negligence of duty, abuse of power and taking bribes. Meanwhile, 12 were employees of Ruihai International Logistic, who are accused of being involved in an illegal scheme. About 11 employees of a different company were also sentenced for producing fake company certification documents.

The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate Court ruled against Yu Xuewei, Chairman of Ruihai International Logistic, giving him a suspended death sentence (basically a life penalty).

Yu was accused of bribing officials to gain a permit to store nearly 50,000 tons of sodium cyanide among other toxic chemicals at the company's storage between 2013 to 2015.

A video by state broadcaster CCTV shows Yu being apologetic during his closing remarks. He said that he agrees with the sentence and is not going to appeal.

"I want to use this opportunity to apologize to those who died and were hurt in the blasts and the families as well as all the citizens of the nation," said Yu.

The explosion, which occurred in August 2015 in the Tianjin city port, killed 173 people and damaged billions worth of property.

Of the fatalities recorded, 99 were firefighters, and 11 were police officers. Authorities say the casualties could have been avoided had the firefighters been informed about the presence of 800 tons of ammonium nitrate.

About 798 individuals were also injured in the incident mainly because the factory had built their storage facility near apartments. This caused massive outrage with residents demanding for compensation.

Tagschina, Tianjin explosion, court ruling