02 June 2004 13:47
Manager set to get off with small fine for not paying wages to miners in Siberia
[Presenter] Here are the first results of the judicial inquiry into the case of the former director of the
Yeniseyskaya coal mine where miners went on a mass hunger strike. He pleaded guilty to the charge of intentionally
withholding wages to his employees, but seems to be facing no more than a fine.
[Correspondent] The court session was taking place in the Chernogorsk Palace of Culture - the town's largest
building that could accommodate all the participants in the trial. Invited to the court session were over 400 injured,
including former and present mine employees, participants of two hunger strikes among them. The session began with the
prosecutor's indictment. The former director of the Yeniseyskaya mine, Ten Yen Tak, is charged with the intentional
withholding of miners' wages for mercenary motives.
The defendant was holding the post of the [mine's] director from November 2002 to January 2004. The wage arrears
were the worst in the period of his directorship, which brought about two hunger strikes with serious consequences. In
the course of the hunger strikes in April and May one person died of a heart attack and about 30 were taken to
hospital.
The investigation has established that the mine's management had the money to pay the staff but did not do so.
While the miners were not receiving their wages, Ten Yen Tak was regularly receiving his monthly salary of R100,000
[about 3,500 dollars] and was providing his friends and acquaintances with free coal.
At today's court session Ten Yen Tak fully admitted his guilt, which made it no longer necessary to listen to
witnesses' statements. The prosecutor asked that the defendant pay a R50,000 fine and did not demand that he be
sent to jail. The verdict is to be read tomorrow [3 June].
[In its 0830 gmt news bulletin on 2 June, the Russian Ren TV channel reported that having heard the prosecutor's
statement, 80 miners who had been attending the trial left the courtroom in protest.]
[NTV] |
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