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Stern Hu, one of the four former Rio Tinto employees convicted of stealing trade secrets and accepting bribes in China last week, will not appeal.

Mr Hu, who is an Australian national, was sentenced to ten years in prison, after spending seven months in custody. All three of his former colleagues are to appeal their sentences of between seven and 14 years, their lawyers have confirmed.

Mr Hu, a former chief negotiator for Rio’s China iron ore business, pleaded guilty to taking bribes from steel mills trying to get preferential access to ore supplies. His lawyer refused to comment further on his decision not to appeal.

The case, which came after the humiliating collapse of what would have been China’s biggest overseas investment: a $19.5 billion (£12.82 billion) capital injection into Rio Tinto by Chinalco, the state-owned metals group, has strained relations between China and Australia.

It has also rattled foreign companies now concerned about the ease of doing business in China.

Rio Tinto had protested the innocence of the four since their arrest in July last year, but sacked them all immediately following the conviction.

The four employees, including Mr Hu and three Chinese colleagues, were originally arrested on the more serious charges of stealing state secrets — a capital offence in China — but the charges were reduced in February.

However, the Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, who has criticsed the secretive nature of the trial, called Mr Hu’s penalty “very harsh.”