Xu, a 25-year-old native of Shanxi province, withdrew nearly 175,000 yuan ($24,000) from a malfunctioning ATM in Guangzhou in May 2005.

The local court had sentenced Xu, who is being held in Guangzhou's Tianhe district detention house, to life imprisonment and ordered him to turn over his personal assets on Nov 20.

The Guangdong High People's Court earlier this week overturned the life sentence and other charges handed down by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court because of "ambiguous and insufficient evidence", ordering the lower court to rehear the case.