Nine diamond traders were given jail terms ranging from three to six years by court
A Chinese court on Wednesday ordered release of 13 out of 22 jailed Gujarati diamond traders, while handing out jail sentences ranging from three to six years to the remaining nine.
Families of the traders and the diamond industry have welcomed the development, which incidentally, comes close on the heels of chief minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China in November.
Authorities in Shenzhen province of China had arrested the 22 diamond traders, most of them belonging to Surat and Mumbai, on charges of smuggling on January 8, 2010. They were found to be smuggling diamonds into Shenzhen from Hong Kong without paying any duty. They were also charged with controlling a smuggling ring.
A court in Shenzhen on Wednesday acquitted 11 of the arrested traders and ordered their deportation. One of the traders was sentenced to imprisonment of one year and 11 months. However, he would be released immediately and deported having already spent 23 months in jail. The court also slapped a fine of one million Yuan (Approx. Rs80 lakh) on another diamond trader and ordered his deportation.
Out of the remaining nine traders, five were sentenced to three years jail, while one was sentenced to 42 months jail. Two of them got 5-year prison sentence, while one was awarded six-year jail.
Ever since the arrests, the matter had been taken up at the highest levels. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had taken up the case of the 22 traders languishing in Chinese jail with his counterpart, Wen Jiabao during the latter's India visit, while external affairs minister SM Krishna took it up with his counterpart Yang Jiechi.
During his visit to China in November, chief minister Narendra Modi too had taken up the issue with the Chinese leadership on humanitarian ground. The Chinese leadership, which had attached great importance to Modi's visit, had assured him that the pending trial in the diamond smuggling case would be expedited. Prior to his China visit, relatives of the jailed traders had urged him to take up the issue with Chinese authorities.
Reacting to the court order, chief minister Narendra Modi wrote on micro-blogging site twitter that he was thankful to China for acting on his request to speed up judicial process for the 22 jailed traders.
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