Yahoo Finance Former Rio Tinto director released after nine years in Chinese prison
The former Rio Tinto director Stern Hu was on Wednesday released from jail after nine years in prison following his controversial arrest during a trade row between China and his native Australia.
He and three of his Chinese colleagues were convicted of accepting bribes in secret court hearings that fell far short of Western legal standards.
London-listed Rio fired him. It was later reported that a consultancy run by Henry Kissinger had advised the company to wash its hands of him to focus on rebuilding relations with the Chinese government.
China claimed Hu — Rio’s top negotiator in the country — had paid bribes for information on Chinese companies’ bids for iron ore.
The 55-year-old was jailed for a time with British fraud investigator Peter Humphrey, controversially imprisoned while working as a contractor for GSK in China.
He and his wife were released after 23 months in jail in which he refused to plead guilty to charges he said were spurious. Now living in the US, he is suing GSK in America.
