Ex-lawyer charges are dropped
Source: Xinhua |
April 23, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PROSECUTORS in southwest China's Chongqing City yesterday dropped charges against former Beijing lawyer Li Zhuang, who had been again accused of encouraging a witness to fabricate evidence.
Li's trial at the Jiangbei District People's Court followed his conviction last year on similar charges. He is currently serving 18 months in prison.
Li, 50, formerly with the Beijing Kangda Law Firm, was on trial this week on charges that he told Xu Lijun, a witness in client Meng Ying's embezzlement trial, to give false testimony in court.
Meng, legal representative of Shanghai Jintangcheng Bath Co, was charged in 2008 with embezzling half of Xu's 1 million yuan (US$153,100) investment in the Shanghai company to repay a personal loan.
It was claimed that, to win the case, Li had enticed Xu to tell the court the fund was a personal loan to Meng. In return, it was said, he would help Xu recover her money. On July 30, 2008, Xu allegedly gave Li's suggested false testimony in court.
Prosecutors said yesterday that evidence the defendant had presented conflicted with the prosecutors' evidence and raised doubts about the veracity of the evidence presented by the prosecutors.
The court was adjourned just three minutes into the trial yesterday and resumed about 50 minutes later with the chief judge announcing the approval of the prosecutors' application to withdraw the charges.
Before a court hands down rulings, prosecutors can still drop charges if they find there has been no wrongdoing, or the offence has not been committed by the defendant, or no criminal liability has been involved, said the chief judge in a statement issued after the trial.
Prosecutors cannot file another lawsuit against Li unless new evidence is found, according to the statement.
The former Beijing lawyer gained nationwide attention in 2009 after he was arrested on charges of encouraging his client, a convicted gang boss in Chongqing, to lie about being mistreated in custody.
The client, Gong Gangmo, one of many high-profile defendants in Chongqing, where the government has mounted a public battle against underworld gangs linked to police corruption, testified against him. Gong was sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-related crimes in February last year.
Li was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in January 2010. This was reduced to 18 months at an appeals court the next month as the court believed Li had cooperated.
Li is expected to be released from prison in June.
Li's trial at the Jiangbei District People's Court followed his conviction last year on similar charges. He is currently serving 18 months in prison.
Li, 50, formerly with the Beijing Kangda Law Firm, was on trial this week on charges that he told Xu Lijun, a witness in client Meng Ying's embezzlement trial, to give false testimony in court.
Meng, legal representative of Shanghai Jintangcheng Bath Co, was charged in 2008 with embezzling half of Xu's 1 million yuan (US$153,100) investment in the Shanghai company to repay a personal loan.
It was claimed that, to win the case, Li had enticed Xu to tell the court the fund was a personal loan to Meng. In return, it was said, he would help Xu recover her money. On July 30, 2008, Xu allegedly gave Li's suggested false testimony in court.
Prosecutors said yesterday that evidence the defendant had presented conflicted with the prosecutors' evidence and raised doubts about the veracity of the evidence presented by the prosecutors.
The court was adjourned just three minutes into the trial yesterday and resumed about 50 minutes later with the chief judge announcing the approval of the prosecutors' application to withdraw the charges.
Before a court hands down rulings, prosecutors can still drop charges if they find there has been no wrongdoing, or the offence has not been committed by the defendant, or no criminal liability has been involved, said the chief judge in a statement issued after the trial.
Prosecutors cannot file another lawsuit against Li unless new evidence is found, according to the statement.
The former Beijing lawyer gained nationwide attention in 2009 after he was arrested on charges of encouraging his client, a convicted gang boss in Chongqing, to lie about being mistreated in custody.
The client, Gong Gangmo, one of many high-profile defendants in Chongqing, where the government has mounted a public battle against underworld gangs linked to police corruption, testified against him. Gong was sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-related crimes in February last year.
Li was convicted and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in January 2010. This was reduced to 18 months at an appeals court the next month as the court believed Li had cooperated.
Li is expected to be released from prison in June.
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