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HAVANA. — The People’s Provincial Court of Havana on Wednesday convicted and sentenced 13 people to up to 30 years in jail for stealing and selling methanol as liquor, causing 11 deaths.
State daily newspaper Granma said the trial of those behind the incident, which poisoned as many as 88 people in July of 2013, was carried out on May 5-7.
The sentences were justified “given the seriousness of the crimes and the contemptible behaviour of the principal perpetrators, who endangered human life in the search for profit,” the report said.
Two security guards, who had stolen 60 litres of methyl alcohol from the Institute of Food and Drugs (IFAL) at the University of Havana, were sentenced to 30 and 27 years in prison respectively, on charges of robbery, negligent homicide and causing serious injury.
The other 11 people involved received jail terms ranging from six months to six years.
The IFAL’s dean and three other school officials were fired for their “apparent lack of control and failure to comply with the duties inherent to their positions,” according to the newspaper.
Methyl alcohol, or methanol, is used as a reagent in laboratories and research centres and is highly toxic when consumed, causing blindness or death. — Xinhua.
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