A 39-year-old Chinese man was sentenced Monday to life in prison for lacing frozen "gyoza" dumplings more than six years ago at the plant where he worked.
According to the Associated Press, a Chinese court sentenced Lu Yueting to life in prison during his trial at the Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province.
Yueting reportedly put methamidophos, a type of pesticide, into several boxes of dumplings. The incident caused 14 people in Japan and China to fall ill in 2008 and triggered a massive recall based on concerns over the safety of food imported from the country.
The incident reportedly strained the relations between China and Japan just months before the Beijing Olympics. The AP reported it took officials nearly two years to detain him.
The AP reported that Yueting, who worked at the Tianyang Food Plant, was unhappy with his wages and was looking to "attract the attention of his managers in order to boost his salary" by injecting the poison into several boxes of frozen dumplings.
Xinhua reported, based on court proceedings, that Yueting went into the factory's refrigerated storehouse three times between October and December 2007 to sabotage the products, which were later sold in Japan and in the Chinese city of Chengdu.
"There is no room for leniency," the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court said in handing down the ruling against Yueting. Also describing Lu's crime as "despicable" and "premeditated."
Originally Chinese authorities initially blamed Japanese for presenting tainted dumplings. Yueting confessed to the crime during his July 2013 trial, stating that he felt sorry for the people who became ill.
