XI'AN, July 31 (Xinhua) -- A man was sentenced Wednesday to ten years and eight months in prison for raiding a tomb believed to be Emperor Qinshihuang's great-grandfather.
The defendant, surnamed Zhang, was also fined 50,000 yuan (7,265 U.S. dollars), according to a verdict handed down by the Lintong district people's court in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
Zhang, together with several others who have been punished in separate cases, raided the tomb which experts regarded as the tomb of the great-grandfather of Emperor Qinshihuang from late September to mid October in 2010, the court said.
Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-207 B.C.) unified China for the first time in history.
The group took away 11 pieces of relics from the tomb, with one later identified as a class-one national cultural relic and the rest as class-three national cultural relics.
Zhang, one of the principal criminals, was detained in December 2018.
