Grave robber appeals 21-month sentence

A man who was sentenced to 21 months in prison for blackmail for robbing graves, has appealed to Beijing No 3 Intermediate People's Court, saying his punishment was heavier than justified.

In January 2009, the farmer from Jiangxi province, surnamed Tu, opened a grave and stole an urn in the capital's Haidian district, and then blackmailed a man surnamed Liu, who was responsible for guarding the graveyard, according to a statement from the court.

Tu threatened Liu by telephone, demanding Liu pay him 10,000 yuan ($1,601) or he would post the information that Liu had lost the urn on the Internet, the statement said, adding that Liu eventually paid 6,000 yuan.

Tu was later arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison for blackmail, the court said.

After he was released in July 2010, Tu again turned to crime. In May 2013, he opened graves in the capital's Tongzhou district and demanded money from relatives of the dead, the court said.

Tu received a 21-month sentence for racketeering from the Tongzhou District People's Court, but considered the sentence too harsh.

Therefore, he appealed to the No 3 Intermediate People's Court, asking for a more lenient sentence.

The court has accepted the case and said it will announce a judgment soon.

More than 10 years earlier, Tu was sentenced to six years for theft in his hometown, and came to Beijing for work after he was released, the statement said.