A former deputy chief of the state-run sports lottery, who was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison after being convicted of bribery in an initial trial last month, has appealed to a higher court, claiming he was "unaware" of the money given to him in a mooncake box.

Zhang Weihua, 44, the former vice director and legal representative of China's Sports Lottery Administration Center, went on trial in the First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing City on Dec. 20 on bribery charges.

During the trial, Zhang was accused of making a profit from giving an unlicensed company the right to supply imported paper for lottery tickets. He was also accused of accepting 20,000 U.S. dollars and a cell phone worth 7,480 yuan (around 1,000 U.S. dollars) from the company, identified as Beijing-based Nanhaiyangguang Science and Technology Limited, between September 2003 and 2004.

He was convicted of bribery on the same day, along with Liu Feng, another official in charge of lottery ticket printing, who granted the supply contract to the company.

Liu was given a prison term of four years after being found guilty of receiving 10,000 U.S. dollars and 10,000 yuan from the same company.

Zhang Yan, who is Zhang Weihua's lawyer, told reporters that his client had drafted an appeal shortly after the first trial. The document has been submitted to the Higher People's Court of Beijing.

"My client insisted it was untenable to say he received a 10,000-U.S. -dollar bribe as when he took home a box of mooncakes in 2004, he was totally unaware of the 10,000 U.S. dollar bribe hidden inside the mooncake box. When he found the money, Zhang reported it to disciplinary inspection officials of the General Administration of Sports of China, and returned the money later," said the lawyer.

In initial trial, however, testimony from an unidentified witness who allegedly gave the mooncake box to Zhang in person stated there were 20,000 U.S. dollars and a mobile phone inside the mooncake box.

Zhang and Liu reportedly returned the bribes in 2005, more than a year after they had accepted them, out of fear that they would be found out during the annual government audit.

"My client also believes some evidence favorable to him was neglected in the first trial, and there was doubt about the cell phone," said the the lawyer. The person who gave the bribe "claimed the cell phone was given to Zhang around the National Day Holiday season in October 2004, but the type of the cell phone mentioned during the previous court trial was not for sale until December 2004, so it was not possible for Zhang to accept a cell phone that was not on sale."

The China Welfare Lottery Administrative Center and the Sports Lottery Administrative Center of China General Administration of Sport are the only two legitimate lottery vendors in China and are both state-run.

China launched its first lottery in June 1987. Lottery ticket sales are one of the major sources of funds for building community sports facilities and financing social welfare programs.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2008)