Retrial for flight attendant 'smuggler'

A former flight attendant who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for smuggling makeup was retried on Thursday, but the verdict is yet to be announced, China News Service reported.

Li Xiaohang, the former flight attendant, brought makeup from duty-free shops in South Korea through Chinese customs among personal belongings and then sold them online. She did this nearly 30 times between 2010 and 2011, evading 1.13 million yuan ($183,600) in excise duty payments, according to verdict made by the court of first instance last July.

Li appealed in September 2012. Beijing High People's Court then asked for a retrial of the case because “some facts are unclear and evidence is insufficient” in May this year.

The amount of the goods she smuggled was said to be about 80,000 yuan in the retrial, according to the report.

Li's lawyer Zhang Yan told China Central Television that the customs couldn't offer evidence to prove that the goods sold online, which were worth about 1.02 million yuan, had entered China.

Li may face a sentence of no more than three years in prison because of the lack of evidence, Zhang said.

The sentence of 11 years in prison for Li is widely considered harsh because many Chinese bring products in from overseas for themselves or for sale online .