After it was announced that Shi Jianfeng, a truck driver who was sentenced to death for evading highway tolls, would be granted a retrial, Chinese media is now reporting that the court officials who sentenced him are being investigated. From CRIEnglish:
At a press conference Sunday, the provincial higher court announced four court officials, including the president and a deputy president, were being probed for the dubious verdict on Shi Jianfeng.
Shi was convicted of fraud Tuesday for evading 3.68 million yuan (558,000 U.S. dollars) of expressway tolls.
The four officials included the court president Guo Baozhen, deputy president Ren Jianjun, supervisor Hou Xiaohong and Lou Yanwei, the chief judge who heard Shi’s case and was directly responsible for the ruling.
While Guo just received a warning from the higher court and stayed on in his job, the other three were also suspended from their posts for further investigation and training, said Tian Liwen, vice president of Henan Provincial Higher Court.
Tian said the intermediate court had failed to investigate Shi’s case properly and apparently lacked evidence when they handed down the sentence.