The life sentence of a migrant worker who exploited an ATM error to withdraw 175,000 yuan (HK$194,505) was commuted to five years by a Guangzhou court yesterday.
Xu Ting, 25, was also ordered to pay a 20,000 yuan fine and return all the illicit money.
After handing down the revised sentence, Gan Zhengpei, the presiding judge of Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, said media and public opinion were taken into consideration during the verdict deliberations.
'Mr Xu was convicted of larceny in both trials. But we have adopted a different assessment for the penalty because Xu caused less social damage in the case and his criminal offence was accidentally triggered by an ATM malfunction, which can't be copied by others,' Ms Gan said.
She said the offence was not premeditated and Xu did not engage in any criminal acts to destroy the cash machine. 'That's why we applied to the Supreme People's Court for a lighter sentence.'
Xu told judge Zheng Yuchen that he would not appeal against the sentence, but his lawyers said they would study the verdict before taking any further legal action.
Xu Cailiang, Xu's father who flew to Guangzhou from Shanxi for the retrial, said he would spend the rest of his life campaigning for an impartial hearing because his son was innocent.