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Documents handed by Fonterra's Patrick Kwok to Sanlu stating the European Union's permitted level of melamine will form the basis of convicted Sanlu group chief Tian Wenhua's appeal against her life sentence, her lawyer said yesterday.
Liang Zikan, in a telephone interview, named Mr Kwok as the Fonterra
board member who gave Tian a document stating that the permitted level of melamine by the European Union was a maximum of 20mg for every kilogram of milk, which she relied on.
Fonterra would not confirm if Mr Kwok was the representative, and said it would only provide the information if requested by the court.
"The identity of the person who sent the information is irrelevant, it was provided by Fonterra China. We will not get dragged into trial through the media," said Graeme McMillan, Fonterra's group director of corporate communications.
Chief executive Andrew Ferrier said he would not name the board member in the interest of his safety, but Fonterra denied that it had anything to do with a fear of possible arrest.
"Absolutely not. None of our directors have done anything illegal, nor is there any suggestion that they have done anything illegal," Mr McMillan said.
Mr Liang also said that the evidence Fonterra said it had of minuted phone calls to Sanlu stating that the only acceptable level of melamine was zero was irrelevant, because it was neither Tian nor Sanlu that were adding melamine to the dairy products.
Fonterra said the documentation of the phone calls could not be released because of Tian's appeal.
"The fact is, there is no need for them to even make such calls because the people at Sanlu were not the ones adding the chemical," Mr Liang said in Mandarin. "What is important is, Fonterra did provide a document detailing what the safe level of melamine was in milk according to the European Union, and Tian Wenhua trusted that information because it came from Fonterra."
He said Tian trusted the documents because they were given to her by Fonterra, which was why she did not stop production of the tainted milk because the levels found were nowhere near the 20mg per kilogram.
Instead, Tian informed Chinese government officials of the contamination in August, when she first found out about it, but the scandal was made public only in September, after the Beijing Olympics.
Six Chinese babies died after drinking Sanlu brand milk powder, and 296,000 others fell ill.
Fonterra said it had never suggested that there was ever a safe level for melamine in dairy products.
"Fonterra at no point suggested that the EU document should be accepted as a safe level," Mr McMillan said. "Fonterra clearly communicated to Sanlu that its product must contain no melamine."
Sanlu was 43 per cent owned by Fonterra, New Zealand's largest company, and it was the first and biggest dairy producer found to have sold melamine-contaminated milk products.
Tian was convicted last year at the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court for manufacturing and selling fake or substandard products, and was sentenced to life last month and fined 24.7 million yuan ($6 million). The court ruled that Tian authorised the sale of products that contained 10mg of melamine for every kilogram of milk.