Guangdong Defense Lawyer Convicted of Evidence Fabrication

January 14, 2005

According to a January 13 report on the China Court Net, the Xinhui District People’s Court in Jiangmen city has convicted a Guangdong defense lawyer for evidence fabrication and sentenced the lawyer to two years in prison. The defense lawyer allegedly presented fabricated documents at a corruption trial and encouraged his client and a witness to give false testimony. An intermediate level people’s court upheld the sentence.

Interestingly, neither the names of the defense lawyer nor the client were disclosed in the article. They are simply identified as “Chen Moumou” and “Chen Mou,” Chinese analogues of “John Doe” in English. The effort to conceal the identity of the lawyer may reflect the sensitivity of cases involving the prosecution of defense lawyers. Both domestic and foreign legal experts have raised strong criticisms over the treatment of defense lawyers in China in recent years. According to an article published in the 21st Century Business Herald last fall, Beijing officials blocked research work on the obstacles faced by defense lawyers after initial results from the study revealed significant problems.