China Agrees to Retry Farmer Given Life for Toll Evasion

January 15th, 2011 - 1:33 am ICT by Angela Kaye Mason  

Jan 14 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A report from the Associated Press has revealed that a farmer who was sentence to life in prison after he evaded highway tolls will be given another trial, after a huge public outcry demanded that his punishment was too heavy.

Shi Jianfeng was sentenced to life in prison for the crime of fraud after he was found guilty of avoiding highway tolls which added up to over 3.68 million yuan, or five hundred and sixty thousand US dollars. He also received a fine of 2 million yuan, or three hundred and two thousand dollars.

The case shows that Shi placed fake military license plates on two trucks which he owned so that he would not have to pay tolls. He is said to have driven those roads over twenty three hundred times from the months of May 2008 until January 2009, as he was running a gravel transporting business.

After he was sentenced, the news of the verdict brought serious objections from the Chinese public, who insist that people are given lesser sentences for far greater crimes, such as rape and murder. The court at last agreed to a retrial after the public outcry became so huge.

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