Ivory smuggler pleads guilty after eight years on run

A man who was on the run for eight years pleaded guilty to ivory smuggling at Beijing No 4 Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday after being returned from Vietnam earlier this year.

Prosecutors said Zhang Weihua, from Hunan province, abandoned his luggage and fled Beijing Capital International Airport on June 22, 2011 when he realized ivory products in the luggage he had carried from Nigeria had been found by customs officials.

Zhang, 46, was transferred from Vietnam to China in March and charged with wildlife product smuggling three months later, the prosecutors said.

"I bought the ivory products from a market in Nigeria when I did business in the country, and I planned to give them to my friends and relatives as gifts," Zhang said during the trial.

"I knew such products were prohibited in China, but I took a chance."

Another man, surnamed Xiong, who was on the same flight from Nigeria as Zhang and also carried ivory products was sentenced to five years in prison in 2011 for smuggling wildlife products, the prosecutors said.

The ivory products carried by Zhang weighed 17 kilograms and was worth more than 700,000 yuan ($99,130), the prosecutors said, adding that the amount and value were higher than in Xiong's case.

"Besides, given that Zhang ran away from China and had stayed overseas for eight years, we suggest the court should give a heavier sentence to Zhang," they said.

But Zhang's lawyer said his client's confession and cooperative attitude "could be regarded as an element for the court to punish him leniently".

The court will announce Zhang's sentence later.