Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Chinese farmer gets suspended sentence for faking tiger photos















Zhou Zhenglong (C), the farmer who was accused and found guilty of faking photographs of a critically-endangered tiger species in the wild, is brought into the court by the police, holding his manuscripts, at the People's Court in Xunyang County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Nov. 17, 2008. Zhou standed the second trial after his appeal against conviction on Monday. (Chinese media/Ding Haitao)
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XI'AN, Nov. 17 (Chinese media) -- The farmer who was found

guilty of faking photographs of an endangered tiger received a lighter sentence

as a result of a legal appeal.

Zhou Zhenglong was sentenced on Monday to two and a

half years in prison with a three-year reprieve in northwest China's Shaanxi

Province.

The People's Court in Xunyang Countyu also fined Zhou

Zhenglong2,000 yuan (about 292 U.S. dollars) for fraud and illegally owning a

gun.

Zhou was initially sentenced on September 27. The

54-year-old was given two and a half years in prison, a 2,000 yuan fine and was

ordered to return a 20,000-yuan reward.

Zhou appealed the ruling on Oct. 8.

Zhou, a native of Zhenping County in Shaanxi, faked

pictures of a South China tiger last year. It is a subspecies that is believed

extinct in the wild in China.

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