Chinese foreign ministry announces early release after Hu was sentenced to 10 years in 2010 for corruption and stealing commercial secrets
Stern Hu, the former head of Rio Tinto’s China iron ore business, has been released from a Shanghai prison, China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after serving eight years in jail following a 2010 conviction for corruption and stealing commercial secrets.
Hu, an Australian citizen, was originally sentenced to 10 years in jail as tension flared between China, the world’s top user of iron ore, and its biggest supplier, Australia. Fired by Rio in the aftermath, Hu is expected to return to Australia just as relations between the two countries cool to a fresh chill.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing in Beijing that Hu had been released on Wednesday.
“While serving his sentence, Hu Shitai complied with prison regulations and discipline and submitted himself to education,” Lu said, using Hu’s Chinese name. “The Chinese justice organs reduced his sentence in accordance with the law.”
Lu did not say where Hu currently was nor when he might return to Australia.
