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Farmer to stand trial again over faking tiger photos

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-13 22:17

XI'AN  -- The farmer who faked photographs of an endangered tiger species in the wild will have his fraud conviction re-examined by a higher court next Monday.

Zhou Zhenglong, photo-faker of the endangered South China tiger, is on trial in the Xunyang County People's Court of northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Sept. 27, 2008. [Xinhua]

Ankang Municipal Intermediate People's Court, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, announced on Thursday that the court hearing will start at 8:30 a.m., in response to the farmer's appeal against the first ruling handed down in September.

Zhou Zhenglong, 54, faked the pictures of a South China tiger in order to win an alleged 100,000 yuan (14,642 US dollars) in prize money. The tiger is a subspecies that has not been seen in the wild in China for years, and is believed to be extinct outside zoos.

The provincial forestry department announced the news to the public on October12 and gave him a 20,000-yuan reward.

A purported South China tiger is pictured in this file photo taken by farmer Zhou Zhenglong. [Xinhua]

Zhou was jailed for two and a half years after his conviction at Xunyang County People's Court on September 27.

According to former court documents, Zhou shot 62 photos of a poster of a tiger, which he disguised in foliage on October 3, 2007.

Zhou's defense lawyers claimed Zhou was not solely responsible for the bad publicity generated by the case, saying the "cursory release of the news by relevant departments" helped promulgate the fraud.

A total of 13 government staff in Shaanxi were sacked or reprimanded as a result of the case.