Two sentenced Rio Tinto staff to file appeal

Two Chinese Rio Tinto employees jailed for stealing trade secrets and pocketing millions in bribes have decided to appeal, their lawyers said yesterday.

Wang Yong and Liu Caikui will appeal against their jail terms of 14 and seven years respectively.

The other Chinese employee Ge Minqiang had not yet decided if he would challenge his sentence of eight years, his lawyer said.

The lawyer representing Australian citizen Stern Hu, who was jailed for 10 years, declined to comment.

Liu lodged his appeal on Friday while Wang will meet with his lawyer on Monday morning to discuss his decision to appeal. Hu and the three Chinese staff were convicted of taking more than $13 million (Dh47.7bn) in kickbacks from Chinese steel firms during tense 2009 iron ore talks, which the court said they had helped ruin, and of stealing trade secrets.

The sentences handed down on Monday in Shanghai provoked protests from Australia, which said the prison term for Hu was "very tough" and "harsh".

Hu, head of Rio Tinto's Shanghai office, was sentenced to seven years for bribery and five more on the industrial espionage charge – but the court reduced the combined sentence to 10 years.

Chinese authorities also plan to take action against officials from Chinese steel companies who allegedly gave bribes to the four Rio executives.

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