Muscat: The Barka Primary Court has convicted five persons and acquitted one other in the case known in the local media as the “Rotten rice scandal”.

The court on Monday sentenced the first, second and third accused to two-year jail terms and slapped them with a fine of 10,000 riyals each for selling rotten food and not abiding by the transparency and credibility clauses as per the Consumer Protection Law.

The court also sentenced the fifth and sixth accused to one year jail terms and imposed a fine of 5,000 riyals each on the same charges.

The court acquitted the fourth accused.

The court ordered deportation of the five after serving their jail terms and ordered the confiscation of all rotten rice bags and destroy them at the expenses of the accused.

Furthermore, in case of getting bail, each accused has to pay 3,000 riyals.

In May, the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) raided the company, which has not been named, in Barka province and confiscated 22 tonnes of rotten rice, apparently stored for sale.

The court heard testimonies of the chairman of the consumer protection body of Barka, as well as the accused men who admitted they had known the rice contained insects and dirt when they packed them in bags for sale.

The court rejected a demand by defence attorneys of six expatriates to investigate Oman TV for slander after the channel exposed the supplier company in a report that outraged Omanis and residents.

In June, the Public Prosecutor of the Barka Primary Court called for harsher punishments for the six expatriates accused of selling contaminated rice.

The Public Prosecutor also provided in the crime file official figures from the Ministry of Health about the fatal diseases and cancers that contaminated food can cause to the consumers.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that a major company had supplied 4,000 expired products to shopping malls and shops in the capital Muscat.

Dozens of workers were arrested on site after it was discovered that they had tampered with labels to alter the expiry dates of the food items. In this case also, the authorities did not name the company.

Currently, violators can be fined up to 55,000 riyals (Dh524,707) and face a maximum of 15 years in prison.