Yu Zhifei, former boss of the Shanghai Formula One racing
circuit and the man who introduced the sport to China in 2004, is
appealing his four-year jail sentence for graft, his lawyer said
Monday.
The appeal was lodged ten days after the first instance verdict
was announced by the Intermediate People's Court in Wuhu, a city in
east China's Anhui Province.
Yu believed some details outlined by the prosecution concerning
his alleged illegal transfer of 1.05 million yuan (nearly
US$144,000) in corporate funds from Shanghai Shenhua Football Club
in 1997, when he was chairman of the board, were "incorrect", Yu's
lawyer Zhang Tiefeng told Xinhua.
The money was used to pay for his 2.43-million yuan house, but
Zhang argued that the house should be Yu's "welfare from Shenhua
Football Club".
"Yu was not in good health - he had problems with his legs,"
said Zhang.
The court found Yu, 54, guilty of illegally transferring 800,000
yuan from the club in 1997 to a Shanghai real estate developer to
pay for his housing debt. The amount of money was embezzled in the
name of "consultation service fees".
In 1999, Yu misappropriated another 250,000 yuan from a
Shenhua-funded international trade company to pay for the remaining
debt, but forged an excuse that the money was spent on "public
welfare advertisements" during that year's Shanghai chrysanthemum
exhibition, the verdict said.
Yu was detained in January last year and his arrest was approved
by the Anhui Provincial People's Procuratorate in February. He was
expelled from the Communist Party of China in May.
(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008)