On December 4, the Hainan Provincial Department of Justice released the "Circular on the Special Education and Rectification of the Lawyer Team and the Special Governance of Prominent Problems in the Industry" on its official website, saying that since the launch of the activity, a total of 146 complaints and reports have been received. Up to now, 5 people have been transferred to judicial organs, and 56 lawyers and 4 law firms have been subject to administrative penalties and industry sanctions.
Serious investigation and punishment of 38 lawyers involved in Zhang Jiahui and other cases. Among them, 4 lawyers and 1 anonymous partner were transferred to the judicial organs; 1 law firm was revoked their practice certificates, 9 lawyers were revoked their lawyers' practice certificates and cancelled their membership qualifications (banned for life), 21 lawyers were suspended from practicing and suspended their membership rights, 1 lawyer was fined, and 3 lawyers were punished with industry warnings.
In December 2020, after zhang Jiahui, former vice president of the Hainan Provincial Higher People's Court, was publicly disclosed by the media for the crime of accepting bribes, administrative miscarriage of justice, and fraud, the media was in an uproar, and the judges and lawyers colluded with each other, and then the problem of polluting the judicial atmosphere was questioned, which attracted special attention.
The media combed through the judgment and found that 18 of the 37 bribers (some say 22 lawyers) directly or indirectly paid bribes to Zhang Jiahui, amounting to more than 20 million, many of whom bore many honorary titles and positions in the Lawyers Association. Later, the official circular said that the local discipline inspection and supervision organs were working together with the judicial administrative organs to deal with the issues related to the lawyers involved in the case. As of now, Hainan officials have not reported the follow-up results of the bribery lawyer.
On December 11, 2020, the Political and Legal Committee of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee issued a circular on issues related to Zhang Jiahui's case, saying that the local discipline inspection and supervision organs were working together with the judicial administrative organs to deal with the relevant issues of the lawyers involved in the case; in cases where Zhang Jiahui's greeting affected the outcome of the adjudication, the local government also urged the Hainan Higher People's Court to initiate an internal supervision procedure review and review.
The Hainan Provincial Department of Justice held a general meeting on December 23 to carry out special education and rectification activities for the province's lawyers.
The Education and Rectification Conference of the Hainan Provincial Department of Justice pointed out that it is necessary to improve the political position, fully understand the importance and necessity of carrying out special education and rectification activities, and through this special education and rectification activity, comprehensively strengthen the party's leadership over the legal profession, guide lawyers to adhere to the correct political direction, practice in good faith in accordance with laws and regulations, conscientiously fulfill their social responsibilities, carry forward the new style and healthy atmosphere of the legal profession, and enhance the overall image of Hainan's lawyer team.
The meeting stressed that great efforts should be made to solve the conspicuous problems existing in the management of the legal profession and in the course of practicing law. It is necessary to check and put it one by one in light of the list of problems, immediately check and make changes, and ensure that no one, one person, or one item is missed. It is necessary to persist in rectifying and reforming, summing up, and improving at the same time, start from the source, and improve and perfect the management system.
A commentary published on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission pointed out: Zhang Jiahui's methods of interfering in the administration of justice are crude and diverse; some of them call the responsible persons of the lower-level courts and greet the relevant judges who undertake the case, asking for care of the relevant entrusted party; some of them put pressure on the side of the person asking for trustees by telephone, and after exerting pressure on the person who asked for help," they sent people to further convey the request to the judge who undertook the case, and some personally expressed their views in favor of the person entrusting the trustee in the adjudication committee. In all these ways, in disregard of the clear provisions of the law and the basic facts, they greet money, instruct and instruct others to make perverse judgments, and vigorously engage in "money cases," "relationship cases," and "personal feeling cases," thus undermining judicial fairness.
The Criminal Law has clear provisions on the crime of bribery, and article 7 (5) of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of Corruption and Bribery clearly defines the starting point for conviction, and if the amount of bribery is paid between 10,000 and 30,000 yuan, and bribes are paid to judicial personnel, which affects judicial fairness, criminal responsibility shall be pursued for the crime of bribery.
On November 22, 2021, the First Intermediate People's Court of Hainan Province publicly convicted Ding Ting, director of the former Editorial Center of the Hainan Branch of the People's Daily, of accepting bribes and offering bribes, and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for 3 years, and a fine of 900,000 yuan for bribery; and 6 years' imprisonment and 500,000 yuan for bribery. He was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for 3 years, and a fine of 1.4 million yuan.
The bribery circumstances were ascertained by the court after trial, and in 2019, the defendant Ding Ting appealed to the Hainan Provincial High Court because of her husband's representation of a dispute over the transfer of an equity, and in order to obtain care, paid a bribe of 3 million yuan to Zhang Moumou, who was then vice president of the Hainan Provincial High Court. Zhang Moumou here is Zhang Jiahui, former vice president of the Hainan Provincial High Court.
In Zhang Jiahui's first-instance criminal judgment, it is stated that in March 2019, Liao Zhetao (a lawyer at a Hainan law firm) asked Zhang Jiahui, then director of the Hainan Branch of the People's Daily, to take care of the dispute over the equity transfer contract between Chen Chunsheng and Wang Chunhua and others. The case was lost in the first instance, and the claims of Chen Chunsheng and Wang Chunhua were rejected. The case was appealed to the Hainan Provincial High Court. Zhang Jiahui greeted Guo Longbin, the undertaker judge. According to Zhang Jiahui's opinion, the second-instance judgment supported Chen Chunsheng and Wang Chunhua, who received 20 million yuan in equity transfer and late payment of liquidated damages. In April 2019, Liao Zhetao asked Ding Ting to drive a red Mercedes-Benz car to the west gate of Shuiyuntian Community in Haikou City and hand over two trolley boxes containing a total of 3 million yuan in cash to Zhang Jiahui.
On December 29, 2020, the Hainan Lawyers Association issued the Decision letter of Qiong Lawyers Association [2020] No. 33 on industry sanctions, which found that hainan tanghai law firm was established on October 15, 2014 by the Hainan Provincial Department of Justice, and was a partnership law firm approved by the Hainan Provincial Department of Justice, with the registered partners Chen Zhengwei, Jiang Zhijie, and Chen Zongze at the time of establishment, and the partners who actually contributed were Chen Zhengwei, Jiang Zhijie, Chen Zongze, Zhang Li, and Zhang Fu. ...... Zhang Fu and Zhang Li are university alumni, no lawyer qualification certificate, Zhang Fu invested 80,000 yuan as a partner of Tanghai Law Firm, and did not sign an agreement with Tang Hai Law Firm and its partners.
Hainan Tanghai Law Firm has a non-lawyer as a partner, and the circumstances are particularly serious. On September 29, 2020, the Hainan Provincial Department of Justice issued the Qiongsi Law Penalty Decision [2020] No. 2 Administrative Punishment Decision, and decided to give Hainan Tanghai Law Firm an administrative penalty of revoking the practice certificate. In view of the illegal acts of Hainan Tanghai Law Firm, the Hainan Lawyers Association decided to give Hainan Tanghai Law Firm the punishment of disqualification.
The specific names of the lawyers involved in the case and the degree of punishment have not been publicly reported or reported. After the Zhang Jiahui case revealed a large number of bribery lawyers involved, in June 2021, the bribery cases of three judges, including Sun Yongyi, former vice president of the Jinan Intermediate People's Court, were exposed one after another, which led to 64 lawyers suspected of bribery. According to the Beiqingshen weChat public account (bqshenyidu), the staff of the Lawyers' Work Office of the Jinan Municipal Bureau of Justice said, "The matter has just come out, we are studying, the judgment we have also obtained from the Internet, the procedure is being started, and it will be handled in accordance with laws, regulations and procedures." "After that, there were no follow-up reports.
Source: Legal House