Beijing - Authorities have decided to overturn the verdict against farmer Shi Jianfeng, who was given a life sentence for evading highway tolls, citing a "lack of evidence and loopholes" in the initial prosecution.

"Because Shi Jianfeng's younger brother, Shi Junfeng, turned himself in as the responsible party, and because we found that charging the elder Shi with fraud might be too severe in this case, we have sent the case back to police for reinvestigation," Wu Fangxiao, spokesman of the People's Procuratorate of Pingdingshan city in Central China's Henan province, said on Monday.

But Wu was quick to add that Shi Jianfeng might still be charged for forging military license plates and could spend three to seven years in prison if found guilty.

He had been convicted of fraud for using counterfeit military driver's licenses, military ID cards and military license plates to evade highway tolls totaling 3.68 million yuan ($550,000) by the Pingdingshan Intermediate People's Court on Dec 21, 2010.

Tollgate records showed he evaded the tolls while driving two trucks on more than 2,300 trips from May 2008 until January 2009. He hired drivers to transport sand and gravel in the trucks and earned about 200,000 yuan during the period, the court found.

He was also fined 2 million yuan, and his illegal revenues were confiscated, according to the initial verdict.

Military vehicles are exempted from paying tolls.

The younger Shi turned himself in last Saturday, saying his brother was a scapegoat for him.

The younger Shi also said he bribed a retired mine boss surnamed Tang with 1.3 million yuan in exchange for Tang's promise to get his brother out of prison.

Wu said the second investigation will focus on four questions.

It will first seek to determine which of the two brothers is primarily responsible.

Second, it will seek to determine how to change the charges against Shi Jianfeng if another accomplice is found to have been involved.

Third, it will reexamine the accuracy of the toll amounts in question.

Finally, police will search for Li Jinliang, a military officer who Shi Jianfeng alleged helped forge the plates. Wu said police have yet to find any officer by that name.

Authorities will also look into claims that two heads of the tollgate on the Zhengzhou-Yaoshan Highway accepted bribes, which reportedly totaled 5,000 yuan a month, Wu said.

Jin Yuwei, assistant to the general manager of the Pingdingshan Branch of the Henan Zhongyuan Expressway Co Ltd, said on Sunday that internal investigations had found the two tollgate heads were not guilty.

The case and verdict have provoked a firestorm in the media and among the public, who have voiced suspicions about the huge toll amounts and disagreement with the sentence's severity.

The Henan Provincial High People's Court said at a news conference on Sunday that two judges in charge of the trial have been removed from their posts.

China Daily