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 Photo/Ding Haitao)
Photo Gallery
XI'AN, Nov. 17 (Chinese media) -- The farmer who was accused
and found guilty of faking photographs of a critically-endangered tiger species
in the wild is standing second trial Monday in northwest China's Shaanxi
Province after his appeal against conviction.
The court hearing began at 8:30 a.m. at the People's
Court in Xunyang County, in response to Zhou Zhenglong's appeal against the
first ruling handed down in September.
The same court sentenced Zhou, aged 54, to two and a
half years in prison and fined him 2,000 yuan (about 292 U.S. dollars) on Sept.
27, on charges of fraud and illegally owning a gun.
Zhou appealed against the ruling on Oct. 8.
Zhou, a native of Zhenping County in Shaanxi, faked
pictures last year of a South China tiger, a subspecies that is believed to have
been extinct in the wild in China for years.
The provincial forestry department announced Zhou's
"discovery" to the public in October 2007, and gave him a 20,000-yuan reward.
Doubts mounted on the Internet after netizens found
an old Lunar New Year poster showing a tiger that looked exactly the same as
Zhou's photo.
Police arrested Zhou in June after seizing an old
tiger poster, which Zhou allegedly used to produce his photos. They also found a
wooden model of a tiger paw and 93 bullets in his home.
A spokesman with the Shaanxi provincial government
said in June that Zhou had used the wooden cat's paw to fabricate tiger's
footprints in the snow.
The Shaanxi provincial government announced in late
June that Zhou's tiger photos were fabricated.
Zhou's defense lawyers claimed outside the court
after the first case that Zhou was not solely responsible for the bad publicity
generated by the case, saying the "cursory release of the news by relevant
departments" helped promote the fraud.
A total of 13 government staff in Shaanxi were sacked
or reprimanded as a result of the case.
Li Qian, a junior wildlife preservation official in
Zhou's home county of Zhenping was sacked for failing to conduct a site survey
to prove the tiger photos genuine, said a spokesman with Shaanxi provincial
department of supervision.
The spokesman said Li also fabricated a survey report
and was therefore directly responsible for the government's cursory release of
Zhou's "discovery".
The case also led to the sackings of Zhenping
County's forestry chief Qin Dapeng, who failed to find holes in Li's report and
trade chief Xie Kunyuan, who provided cameras and films to Zhou and helped Zhou
develop the fake tiger photos.
Four officials from the provincial forestry
department were also removed, including two deputy chiefs.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment