2015-02-05
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A Chinese protestor detonates a homemade bomb on a roof to resist a land requisition in Changchun, Jilin province, in a file photo.
EyePress News
Lawyers acting for evictee Fan Mugen walked out of court on Thursday in protest over violations of legal procedure on the second day of his trial in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.
Fan’s trial at the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court on charges of “intentional wounding” came after he attacked two members of a demolition gang that came to evict his family from their home, and whom he said beat up his wife.
The two men died, while six other members of the gang stood trial at a district court in the provincial capital Suzhou on Monday.
Fan’s defense lawyers walked out after a day of hearing evidence, in protest of the admission of video footage by the prosecution, which the defense said was suspect and should be further investigated.
“There was an extremely important piece of objective evidence that wasn’t admitted, and without it we couldn’t make our case,” defense lawyer Wang Yu told RFA.
“So all four lawyers left the court in protest; not to refuse to defend [Fan] but in the hope that Fan Mugen will get a better defense that that, one that takes place under the proper conditions,” she said.
Violated legal procedure
Wang said the trial had been plagued with violations of legal procedure since it started on Wednesday.
“The prosecution showed some video footage shot by complaints office staff on Dec. 3, 2013, which had a lot of places that didn’t seem authentic, and which we thought had very clearly been heavily edited,” she said. “Fan Mugen himself had suspicions about it.”
Wang said the lawyers had demanded that the video be sent for technical analysis.
“At around 6 p.m. the court came to the illegal decision that the video was authentic, and rejected our application,” she said.
Wang said the lawyers filed a complaint with the state prosecution service shortly after leaving the court.
“We hope that the procuratorate will be able to rectify the illegal actions of the court,” she said.
She said the defense lawyers wouldn’t proceed with the trial on Friday if the procuratorate failed to respond to the complaint in an adequate manner.
“It would be deceptive to the general public to proceed, and I think that they have already decided what the outcome of this trial will be, anyway,” Wang said. “So there isn’t much use for a defense team.”
