The decision of a local court in Guangdong Province to change the original sentence of two villagers convicted of illegal lumbering upon their request has generated a heated public debate over judicial practices in China.
Chen Weiliang and Zeng Biqiang, two villagers from Huizhou, Guangdong Province, were each sentenced to four years' imprisonment and 3,000 yuan($452) in fines for illegally felling and selling lumber from collectively owned trees in March in their first trial.
During their appeal, Chen and Hui promised to pay more in fines and plant trees to make up for the number they had destroyed if they were spared prison terms. The Huizhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced them to three years in prison with five years' probation and fined them 50,000 yuan ($7543) each.
The sentence, which was handed down at the second trial in late December, also stipulated Chen and Hui had to plant 500 trees, five times the number that they had felled.
Chen Jian, the presiding judge of the case, told Xinhua that the new sentence would better make up for the damage caused by the crime.
However, the decision has caused controversy, with some believing that the move is tantamount to a convict buying his way out of prison, thus damaging the impartiality of the judicial system.
Zhou Hanhua, a professor of law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the verdict is an innovation in legal practice.
"The verdict that reduces criminal penalties and forces the criminal to work to resolve the damages is the humane way to resolve certain criminal cases," Zhou said, adding that the practice was invented in Western countries, and is gradually being adopted in China.
However, Zhou warned that the practice would also lead to certain problems if it wasn't properly supervised, and could be vulnerable to exploitation by corrupt officials.
Cai Shuwan contributed to the story
(By Ge Lili)
