Society

Court officials investigated in China toll case

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-01-16 22:36

BEIJING - A judge and two court officials were suspended in a probe into a life sentence given to a Chinese farmer for evading highway tolls, after the heavy punishment triggered a public outcry, state media said Sunday.

The court in Henan province sentenced Shi Jianfeng to life in prison last week after finding him guilty of evading more than 3.68 million yuan ($560,000) in highway tolls. Fake military license plates were mounted on two trucks that carried gravel and avoided tolls more than 2,300 times because military vehicles are exempt.

Xinhua News Agency said the president, deputy president, supervisor and chief judge of the Pingdingshan Municipal Intermediate People's Court were being questioned for failing to properly investigate Shi's case and handing down a sentence while lacking evidence.

The judge, Lou Yanwei, made the ruling in Shi's case, the report said.

All were suspended from their posts except for the president, who was given a warning, Xinhua said.

The move came after Shi's younger brother, Shi Junfeng, turned himself in to police and said his imprisoned brother had taken the blame for him, Xinhua said.

Shi Junfeng also told police he had offered bribes to officials after his brother's detention and was promised he would be released soon, it said.

After a massive public outcry over the heavy sentence, the court announced a retrial, saying the verdict might change because the defendant had told a new inquiry that he had been manipulated by a relative, Xinhua reported Friday.

Chinese Internet users argued in posts and commentaries that the penalty was excessive because shorter sentences were imposed for the more serious crimes of rape and murder. The comments also strayed beyond Shi's case to popular complaints that highway tolls are too high.