Retrial for farmer in sweater case

BEIJING - A controversial case in which a man was sentenced to five years in prison and fined more than 21 million yuan ($3.3 million) for selling fake brand-name sweaters will be retried after a high people's court repealed the first verdict on Monday.

Li Qing, a farmer from Chenzhou in Hunan province, was arrested in December 2010 by police from Erdos, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, for selling fake Erdos brand wool sweaters at lower prices in a market in Chenzhou.

The Erdos city police seized 26,151 sweaters priced at 2,180 yuan, 1,680 yuan and 968 yuan, from Li's store. The 43 million yuan worth of merchandise - based on their marked prices - was sent to the city court as evidence.