Just now, I saw this photo that is enough to be recorded in the history of criminal defense.
(The recording pen hidden under the chair in the lawyer’s meeting room of Huanghua Detention Center)
The source of this picture is a message posted by lawyer Zhu Xiaoding on Weibo. Lawyer Zhu said that lawyer Liao Baozhong, who is his partner in the defense, was arranged to meet in the lawyer’s first meeting room when he went to the Huanghua City Detention Center in Hebei Province this afternoon to meet with Hu Yannan, the defendant in a contract fraud case. During the meeting, something suddenly fell to the ground. After Hu Yannan and lawyer Liao checked, they found that a recording pen was flashing and recording. The recording pen fell from under the iron chair where Hu Yannan was sitting. It was obvious that some people had just been secretly attached to the iron chair before the lawyer’s meeting to monitor the meeting.
Lawyer Zhu also said that previously, “Hu Yannan has been subjected to various abnormal treatments in the Huanghua City Detention Center, and was warned that ‘every move of Hu Yannan and his lawyer is under their noses’.”
Article 39 of the “Criminal Procedure Law” and Article 33 of the “Law on Lawyers” both clearly stipulate that defense lawyers shall not be monitored when meeting with criminal suspects and defendants. This is common sense that does not require legal education, and the detention center and the case-handling authorities will also know.
Usually in some special cases, as a criminal defense lawyer, I also know that my meetings may be monitored, but I think this time in Huanghua, directly catching the iron evidence of eavesdropping on lawyers, should be the first time in my memory.
Regarding the act of placing a recording pen, in fact, many meeting rooms themselves are real-time monitored, but some cannot transmit sound to the monitoring room in real time. And, those who really want to obtain the lawyer’s recording must be the case-handling personnel behind the scenes, not the detention center. By placing a recording pen, it is easier to transmit the content spoken by the lawyer to the case-handling personnel without any modification, without the need for further transmission. I believe this may be the reason for using the recording pen.
Lawyer Zhu said in his Weibo that the case of the client being monitored involves hundreds of millions of yuan, and Cangzhou, Hebei, does not have jurisdiction, but still forcibly interferes with civil disputes by criminal means. For this reason, they have been applying to change the jurisdiction.
I don’t know if Cangzhou originally had jurisdiction. However, if the eavesdropping behavior was really made by the local case-handling authorities (I believe this is highly likely, otherwise, what motivation does the detention center have to do this?), then the local judicial system that has committed such extremely bad illegal acts is definitely not suitable to continue to have jurisdiction over this case.
I don’t know if you still remember the case of the female entrepreneur in Guizhou a few days ago. The announcement issued by the Shuicheng District Government said that the crime of the female entrepreneur was to install a tracker on other people’s vehicles. According to this standard in Guizhou, the case-handling personnel in Cangzhou who secretly installed eavesdropping equipment have a more serious crime. It depends on whether different places will use the same punishment standards.
Some people may say, it’s just a monitoring, is there anything shameful about what you lawyers say during the meeting?
Whether the lawyer’s meeting is monitored is related to the survival of the entire criminal defense system. Ask yourself, if the communication between the client and the lawyer is known in real time by the case-handling authorities, does the client still dare to tell the truth to the lawyer? Does he still dare to reflect the illegal acts of the case-handling personnel? Can the lawyer still provide defense advice for the client without any worries? If the meeting may be monitored, what will eventually lead to is the failure of the entire criminal defense system.
Even in our daily lives, our privacy is violated very often, and we must never think that this is a trivial matter. This is a matter of great importance. If we allow this serious incident to pass with the passage of time, it may be condoning these illegal case-handling judicial personnel to be more unscrupulous. The mastermind of this matter must be seriously investigated, and their responsibilities must be seriously pursued according to the law.
You know, if the same bad behavior happens in the United States, it can directly lead to the president’s resignation.
(Attached: Screenshot of Lawyer Zhu Xiaoding’s original Weibo)
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