Former stewardess has sentence upheld for smuggling

A retired airplane stewardess accused of smuggling received her final court ruling on Monday, with her sentence of three years in jail upheld, Beijing Times reported on Tuesday.

Li Xiaohang, a former stewardess with Hainan Airlines, cooperated with two men from 2010 until August 2011 to bring cosmetics and other items they bought at South Korean duty-free shops into China without declaring the goods, which they then sold online.

On Sept 3, 2012, Li was sentenced by a court in Beijing to 11 years imprisonment for smuggling goods and evading more than 1 million yuan ($161,327) of import duties.

Li appealed and in May 2013, the case was remanded. During that trial, the customs department recalculated the tax evasion amount as about 80,000 yuan.

The court of second instance made a final judgment of three years in jail and a fine of 40,000 yuan and, because Li had been in jail for more than one year and was diagnosed with regenerative anemia, the court agreed for her to stay out of jail on bail for the rest of her prison term.

Li also appealed the second instance judgment and the city's superior court made a decision on Monday to uphold the judgment.