Woman sentenced for smuggling gets a retrial
By Li Qian |
May 8, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A FLIGHT attendant who was charged with smuggling and sentenced to 11 years in jail last July will have her case retried.
Li Xiaohang, 30, was sentenced in Beijing last year for buying cosmetics from duty-free shops in South Korea and selling them on her online store between 2010 and August 2011, The Beijing News reported yesterday. Li did not declare the items at Customs on arrival in China.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said in its ruling that she had evaded duty worth more than 1.09 million yuan (US$177,125), and accordingly sentenced her to 11 years in jail and fined 500,000 yuan.
But Beijing Higher People's Court overturned the verdict, citing unclear facts in the case and lack of evidence against her after she appealed the ruling last September, Zhang Yan, her lawyer, said.
Li did not mean to smuggle goods or commit any crime on purpose, Zhang said. Li's father also asked for leniency, claiming the court had improperly got the evidences and the customs duty valuation was excessively high, the paper reported.
A retrial will be heard within three months, Zhang added.
The case had sparked a heated discussion online as buying overseas stuff is popular among Chinese, many of whom flock to popular online sites like taobao.com, China's biggest e-commerce platform, to make purchases. But China's General Administration of Customs is clear about it.
Passengers who make purchases abroad worth more than 5,000 yuan for personal use should declare it on arrival. The Customs will levy a tax accordingly.
But many people, including passengers, tour guides and airline crew, ignore the rule and evade tariffs.
Crew members accounted for about 40 percent of the suspects detained for smuggling last year, Shanghai Customs admitted in September.
Li Xiaohang, 30, was sentenced in Beijing last year for buying cosmetics from duty-free shops in South Korea and selling them on her online store between 2010 and August 2011, The Beijing News reported yesterday. Li did not declare the items at Customs on arrival in China.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said in its ruling that she had evaded duty worth more than 1.09 million yuan (US$177,125), and accordingly sentenced her to 11 years in jail and fined 500,000 yuan.
But Beijing Higher People's Court overturned the verdict, citing unclear facts in the case and lack of evidence against her after she appealed the ruling last September, Zhang Yan, her lawyer, said.
Li did not mean to smuggle goods or commit any crime on purpose, Zhang said. Li's father also asked for leniency, claiming the court had improperly got the evidences and the customs duty valuation was excessively high, the paper reported.
A retrial will be heard within three months, Zhang added.
The case had sparked a heated discussion online as buying overseas stuff is popular among Chinese, many of whom flock to popular online sites like taobao.com, China's biggest e-commerce platform, to make purchases. But China's General Administration of Customs is clear about it.
Passengers who make purchases abroad worth more than 5,000 yuan for personal use should declare it on arrival. The Customs will levy a tax accordingly.
But many people, including passengers, tour guides and airline crew, ignore the rule and evade tariffs.
Crew members accounted for about 40 percent of the suspects detained for smuggling last year, Shanghai Customs admitted in September.
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