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The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

author:Beijing News

At 9:00 a.m. on December 4, 2020, the case of Zhang Jiahui, former vice president of the Hainan Provincial High Court, was pronounced at the first instance trial of the Hainan Provincial First Intermediate Court. The verdict was 158 pages long, and some media reported that it took nearly an hour to read it on the spot.

According to the verdict, Zhang Jiahui was convicted of accepting bribes, administrative bending of justice, and fraud, and was punished for several crimes at the same time, and decided to carry out a fixed-term imprisonment of 18 years and a fine of 4 million yuan. According to the poster news report, a person who watched the verdict said that the judge asked Zhang Jiahui whether she agreed with the verdict, "she said she was not satisfied"; "The judge asked her whether to appeal, and she said that she would consider it before deciding." ”

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

Zhang Jiahui. Photo/People's Court Newspaper

According to the first-instance judgment of Zhang Jiahui's case, on May 31, 2019, the special case team of the Hainan Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission took Zhang Jiahui to the conversation room of the second office area of the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, and on the same day, he was retained. During the review and investigation, after repeated education by the organization, Zhang Jiahui confessed to the problem of bribery crimes that some organizations had mastered, and then took the initiative to confess other bribery crimes that the organization did not have.

A Beijing News reporter combed through the verdict and found that Zhang Jiahui mainly accepted bribes through her ex-husband Liu Yuansheng, nephew Liu Lei and some judges; lawyers accounted for more than half of the bribe-givers, and many people operated for many years in order to make friends with Zhang Jiahui. In addition, Zhang Jiahui will interfere in the direction of the case by greeting the judge undertaking the case and "endorsing" the entrusted party in the adjudication committee, but not all judicial personnel will buy it, and some judges will directly refuse.

After the verdict in Zhang Jiahui's case was pronounced, the official WeChat public account of the Political and Legal Committee of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee, "Hainan Political and Legal Affairs", issued a relevant notice on December 11. The circular said that the discipline inspection and supervision organs are working with the judicial-administrative organs to deal with issues related to the lawyers involved in the case; some judges and public employees involved in the case have been filed for review and investigation, some of the judges involved in the case have been convicted and punished, and other people involved in the case are being dealt with in different categories.

Through whom did Zhang Jiahui accept bribes?

Public information shows that Zhang Jiahui was born in 1965, a native of Wanzhou, Chongqing. She studied English and American literature in her early years, but only changed to law in 1988, and after obtaining a master's degree from the Southwest University of Political Science and Law (now Southwest University of Political Science and Law), she worked briefly in the courthouse of her hometown.

According to China News Weekly, Zhang Jiahui's ex-husband, Liu Yuansheng, was born in 1966, a year younger than Zhang Jiahui, and the two met while studying at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law. In January 1990, Zhang Jiahui and Liu Yuansheng registered for marriage; two years later, the couple was introduced to Haikou by the former Hainan Intermediate Court (now the First Intermediate Court of Hainan Province) as highly educated talents. In 1995, Liu Yuansheng left the court for some reason and cooperated with a lawyer to set up a consulting company and devote himself to commercial sea.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

Zhang Jiahui's husband Liu Yuansheng. Photo/Beijing News our video

After moving to Hainan for 12 years, in September 2004, Zhang Jiahui was transferred to the Hainan Provincial High Court as vice president of the Trial Supervision Division. Judging from the circumstances disclosed in the verdict, this is the starting point of Zhang Jiahui's bribery career.

However, the Beijing News reporter statistics found that of the 37 bribe-givers mentioned in the judgment, only a few directly knew Zhang Jiahui; 24 people were asked by Liu Yuansheng, nearly 2/3. Based on Liu Yuansheng's unique identity across the legal and business circles, liu Yuansheng was found by both lawyers and business owners; in addition, Liu Yuansheng also served as a member of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a standing committee member of the Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (both of which have been dismissed), and the members of the Same Term of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also entrusted him with help.

For example, in 2013, Chen Hongjuan, a member of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a lawyer at Hainan Jinyu Law Firm, found Liu Yuansheng and asked Zhang Jiahui to take care of a contract dispute case he represented, and sent Liu Yuansheng 200,000 yuan after the incident. In 2016, Zhan Hanqin, a member of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a businessman, approached Liu Yuansheng and hoped that Zhang Jiahui would help his brother in the equity dispute case.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

In January 2020, the official website of the Hainan Provincial Government forwarded the decision to remove Liu Yuansheng from his position as a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Screenshot of the official website of the Hainan Provincial Government

Public information shows that in March 2017, Zhang Jiahui and Liu Yuansheng went through divorce procedures. However, the two do not seem to have separated since then, and Liu Weizhang's role as an intermediary for bribery and bribery has not changed. For example, in 2018, a lawyer asked Zhang Jiahui through Liu Yuansheng, who informed Zhang Jiahui after receiving money twice; after 2017, Zhang Jiahui accepted bribes several times and put the money in the safe at home, and then let Liu Yuansheng deal with it.

In addition to Liu Yuansheng, Zhang Jiahui's nephew Liu Lei is also one of the important people who have asked for her trust and paid bribes. According to China Business Daily, Liu Lei works for a number of companies that Liu Yuansheng actually controls, and his wife is a procurator at a procuratorate in Hainan Province. The verdict shows that there were 5 bribe-givers through Liu Lei's request, and there were 10 criminal facts of bribery, and one of them, Liu Yuansheng, also intervened.

Judging from the testimony of Zhang Jiahui, Liu Lei, and others, Zhang Jiahui trusted this nephew very much, and sometimes Liu Lei could agree to do things for the trustee and collect money without consulting Zhang Jiahui. For example, in 2018, a briber gave Liu Lei 500,000 yuan, hoping that Zhang Jiahui would help in a contract dispute case. Liu Lei told Zhang Jiahui after he promised to come down, and Zhang Jiahui also greeted the judge who undertook it.

In addition to Liu Yuansheng and Liu Lei, there are also subordinates and former subordinates who thread Zhang Jiahui and the bribe-givers.

Zhang Ming'an, a retired judge of the Hainan Higher People's Court, is a notable character. According to the verdict, Zhang Jiahui accepted bribes for the first time in 2006, when she had just served as the president of the First Civil Division of the Hainan Higher People's Court. Zhang Ming'an was the second-instance judge of the case, and the collegial panel later formed a judgment favorable to the requesting party on the basis of the opinions of the adjudication committee and Zhang Jiahui.

In 2016, Zhang Ming'an, who had retired, began to connect Zhang Jiahui with the briber. According to the judgment, Zhang Ming'an asked Zhang Jiahui for the entrustment of his mother, Huang Yin'e, to resolve a loan dispute between Huang Company and sent money twice before and after the incident, totaling 1.2 million yuan.

In addition, Song Changqing, judge of a certain court in Hainan Province, Wang Bing, former vice president of the Qiongshan District Court in Haikou City, and Huang Weiguo, then vice president of the Second Criminal Trial Division of the Hainan Provincial High Court, all introduced bribe-givers by Zhang Jiahui. Among them, Song Changqing, similar to Zhang Ming'an, served as the judge who undertook the case of Zhang Jiahui's entrustment, and according to Zhang Jiahui's wishes, made a judgment favorable to the entrusted party; Wang Bing often played mahjong and ate with Zhang Jiahui and his wife, and in a case of entrustment and bribery, he also accepted 4 million yuan in benefit fees as brokers, of which 2 million yuan was used to bribe Zhang Jiahui, and he earned 2 million yuan in profits.

Which lawyers have paid bribes to Zhang Jiahui?

According to the statistics of the Beijing News reporter, 18 of the 37 bribe-givers included lawyers; another person paid bribes as a shareholder of a company, but also had a lawyer's qualifications. According to public information, 2 of the 18 lawyers were members of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, including Zhao Jianping and Chen Hongjuan; and 5 had served in the Hainan Lawyers Association, including Zhang Jie, Li Yongtao, Wu Zhen, Tu Xianya, and Liao Bo.

Among many lawyers, one of the lawyers with the richest resume and the most contact with Zhang Jiahui is Tu Xianya, 56 years old, Tujia family. According to the industrial and commercial information of Hainan Haiqi Transportation Group Co., Ltd., of which Tu Xianya is an independent director, as early as 1988, Tu served as a judge in the economic division of the former Hainan Intermediate Court, and four years later he went to the sea to become a lawyer. Before zhang jiahui's case, Tu Xianya was already the director of Hainan Fangyuan Law Firm, the vice president of the Hainan Lawyers Association, and an arbitrator of the Hainan Arbitration Commission, focusing on creditor's rights and debts, contract law, company law and other fields.

Another vice president of the Hainan Lawyers Association who participated in the bribery was Wu Zhen, a native of Wenchang City, Hainan Province, who graduated from the law department of Sun Yat-sen University. According to the official website of Hainan Dahuayuan Law Firm, this "post-70s" lawyer is the director and chief partner of the firm, and has also won the titles of Excellent Lawyer of Hainan Province and Integrity Lawyer of Hainan Province.

On December 12, 2020, a reporter from the Beijing News found that the information of Tu Xianya and Wu Zhen on the website had been deleted after verification on the official website of the Hainan Lawyers Association, and the vice president positions of the two had been replaced by others.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

Of the 37 people who paid bribes to Zhang Jiahui, 18 were lawyers. Photo/ Beijing News

The Beijing News reporter searched and found that many of the above 18 lawyers graduated from Southwest University of Political Science and Law and were alumni of Zhang Jiahui. For example, Tu Xianya is a 1985 graduate of the school; Wang Lin, a lawyer at Hainan Yanxin Law Firm, is a 2002 graduate of the school; and Ding Xin, a lawyer at Hainan Economic and Commission Law Firm, is a 1983 graduate of the school.

According to an alumnus of the Southwest University of Political Science and Law who is at the same level as Ding Xin, during her college years, Ding Xin was a "very simple little girl" and "said to be very developed" after working as a lawyer in Hainan. Another lawyer who paid bribes as a business owner, Qiu Dailun, is also a graduate of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, and according to the memories of the above-mentioned Xizheng alumni, Qiu Dailun will be invited back to his alma mater to give a speech from time to time, leaving a picture of "also being upright and never pulling relations."

Perhaps because of the relationship between alumni, Zhang Jiahui is closer to some lawyers.

The judgment shows that from 2013 to 2019, Tu Xianya went to Zhang Jiahui's home for seven consecutive years to visit the New Year, And Zhang Jiahui moved from Haikou Jiabao Garden to Shuiyuntian Community, and Tu Xianya followed suit. Every time he visits the New Year, Tu Xianya will send 200,000 yuan, accumulating 1.4 million yuan. However, before 2016, Tu Xianya did not ask Zhang Jiahui for a case.

In the second half of 2017, Ding Xin, a lawyer who graduated from Southwest University of Political Science and Law, also asked Zhang Jiahui to take care of the case she represented, and the result of the later judgment partially supported Ding Xin's client's claim. According to Ding Xin's testimony in the judgment, in the second half of 2018, Zhang Jiahui asked Ding Xin to complain about the judge's difficulty and low income when drinking tea, and Ding Xin immediately understood that Zhang was dissatisfied with his failure to express gratitude. A few days later, Ding Xin sent Zhang Jiahui a plastic bag containing 100,000 yuan.

In addition to these people who already know Zhang Jiahui, it is not easy for other lawyers to catch Zhang Jiahui's line.

For example, Tong Tianxing, a lawyer at Hainan Ruilai Law Firm, was friends with Liu Lei before he met Zhang Jiahui. According to Liu Lei's testimony in the verdict, as early as 2013, Tong Tianxing sent money through Liu Lei and asked Zhang Jiahui to take care of the case he represented, but the result of the judgment was not as desired. After this incident, Tong Tianxing did not ask Liu Lei to return the money, leaving room for follow-up entrustment.

In 2017, Tong Tianxing once again asked Zhang Jiahui through Liu Lei and sent 50,000 yuan in benefit fees. This time, he finally met Zhang Jiahui under the introduction of Liu Lei, and has often played mahjong with Zhang Jiahui since then.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

In an online video, Zhang Jiahui is playing mahjong. Photo/Beijing News our video

Hainan lawyer Liao Zhetao met Zhang Jiahui through Li Yan, vice president of the Second Civil Division of the Haikou Intermediate People's Court. Li Yan is a fellow of Liao's Hubei province, and in 2014, Zhang Jiahui greeted Li Yan and asked him to take care of a case.

According to Li Yan's testimony in the verdict, in March 2019, Li Yan arranged a dinner party to introduce Liao Zhetao and his wife to Zhang Jiahui; Li Yan also said that Liao Zhetao's wife's family had a case in the Hainan High Court and hoped that Zhang Jiahui would take care of it. According to the testimony of Liao Zhetao's wife, in April 2019, she drove a red Mercedes-Benz car and delivered two trolley boxes filled with banknotes to the Shuiyuntian Community where Zhang Jiahui lived. In July 2019, Liao Zhetao asked Li Yan to dinner again and paid Li Yan 10,000 yuan for the previous banquet for Zhang Jiahui.

According to the verdict, Liao Zhetao's bribe amount ranked second among lawyers, reaching 3 million yuan.

How much did Zhang Jiahui charge a lawyer? How do I collect money?

According to the judgment, of the more than 60 bribery crimes that Zhang Jiahui was convicted of, only 2 involved divorce lawsuits, and most of the others were commercial cases, with the subject amount ranging from 2 million yuan to hundreds of millions of yuan. In the view of Fan Chen, a lawyer in Beijing, the amount of such commercial cases is large enough, and the people involved in the case have the incentive to pay bribes.

In the 30 cases in which the briber was a lawyer, the lawyer's representation fee ranged from 60,000 yuan to 12 million yuan, and nearly half of the lawyers in the case were risk agents - before the case judgment result was released, the lawyer only took a small amount of the agency fee; after the case judgment result was released, the lawyer then drew a certain proportion of the court's judgment amount and the actual enforcement amount. This kind of representation model sometimes makes lawyers have a greater motivation to win lawsuits and pay bribes.

For example, in a debt dispute case represented by Li Yongtao, a lawyer at Hainan Fangyuan Law Firm, the entrusting parties agreed to pay an agency fee of 30% of the amount of the case. The judgment shows that Li Yongtao gave Zhang Jiahui 500,000 yuan through Liu Yuansheng, and he finally got 10.227 million yuan in risk agency fees.

According to the statistics of the Beijing News reporter, in the cases entrusted by these lawyers, Zhang Jiahui's bribe amount ranged from 50,000 yuan to 3 million yuan, and in most cases between 100,000 yuan and 1 million yuan, a total of 19.05 million yuan; plus tu Xianya's gift during the Spring Festival, a total of 20.45 million yuan. Proportionally, bribes are mostly a small part of the lawyer's fee. A case represented by Zhang Jie, a lawyer at Hainan Tianhao Law Firm, is a rare exception, in which Zhang Jie only took 60,000 yuan in agency fees, but gave Zhang Jiahui 100,000 yuan for entrustment fees.

Just like the plot in film and television dramas, many bribery acts occur in relatively private places, such as Zhang Jiahui and Liu Yuansheng's Shuiyuntian Community Clubhouse and Shuiyuntian Cafe.

According to public information, "Shuiyuntian" is a real estate project of Hainan Weishe Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., which was registered and actually controlled by Liu Yuansheng. Around 2005, shortly after Zhang Jiahui was transferred to the Hainan Higher People's Court, Liu Yuansheng entered the real estate industry with the "Water Cloud Sky" project.

According to the notice issued by the joint investigation team of the Zhangjiahui case in November 2019, Liu Yuansheng used the first and second floors of a lakeside building in Shuiyuntian Community as the company's office, and set up a living room and a dining room on the third floor, which were not open to the public, and Zhang Jiahui and Liu Yuansheng hosted guests here from time to time. The verdict also mentioned many times that Zhang Jiahui played mahjong with people in the clubhouse.

In China Newsweek, the clubhouse is surrounded by lakes and trees, with a wide range of dining and entertainment facilities and an outdoor swimming pool.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

The place where many bribery acts occurred was in the Shuiyuntian Community. It is also the registered place of many of Liu Yuansheng's companies. Photo/Beijing News our video

In addition to the Shuiyuntian Community Clubhouse and shuiyuntian Café, Zhang Jiahui herself occasionally receives bribes in hotel parking lots, tea house parking lots, restaurants and even roadsides.

According to the judgment, in 2013, Zhang Jiahui helped lawyer Wang Lin in a contract dispute case, and after the incident was completed, Wang Lin asked Zhang Jiahui to dinner and gave Zhang 1 million yuan. Zhang Jiahui's driver's testimony said that he was waiting for Zhang Jiahui in the hotel parking lot that day, and Wang Lin first put a cardboard box in the trunk of the car. The cardboard box is actually a bribe.

The verdict also shows that in 2017, lawyer Zhang Fu put a bribe of 200,000 yuan into a black paper bag and sent it to Zhang Jiahui's office in the Hainan Higher People's Court under the name of "local specialties" through a judge's intermediary.

Not only Zhang Jiahui herself, but also a small number of judges who have asked for entrustment cases will also receive bribes. For example, in a 2018 equity transfer dispute case, Xu Zhengwei, a judge at the Hainan Higher People's Court, said that Liu Lei had given himself a suitcase containing 1 million yuan in cash, but the other parties did not talk about the matter in their testimony. In another equity transfer dispute in 2017, Judge Wu Suqiong of the Hainan Higher People's Court supported the company's application for seizure according to Zhang Jiahui's instructions, and Liu Lei gave Wu Suqiong 300,000 yuan, but Wu Suqiong returned the money afterwards.

According to Zhang Jiahui's confession, Liu Yuansheng's testimony and other materials, 9 bribes totaling 10.1 million yuan were put into zhang jiahui's safe, mainly for the development of the "Water Cloud Day" project or daily household expenses. In addition, some of the bribes received by Liu Yuansheng were handled by Zhang Jiahui himself; some of the bribes received by Liu Lei were also kept or used by himself according to Zhang Jiahui's wishes.

How does Zhang Jiahui influence the outcome of the case?

The Beijing News reporter combed the judgment and found that in more than 60 cases in which Zhang Jiahui intervened, 28 cases were handled by the undertaker according to his intentions, most of which changed the direction of the adjudication.

For example, in 2013, the Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College (hereinafter referred to as the "Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical College") was involved in two construction project construction contract disputes. According to the judgment, at the end of 2012, Zhang Jiahui received 1 million yuan and was asked by Wang Lin, a lawyer representing the Haiyi Hospital, to intervene in the case. At that time, the case was being tried in the second instance of the Hainan Higher People's Court, and Zhang Jiahui asked the judge to go to his office to listen to the handling opinions in order to minimize the financial burden of the Hainan Medical Affiliated Hospital.

Based on the testimony of the judges undertaking the case and the members of the collegial panel, the judges formed two different opinions on the two cases, most of which were to reject the appeal of the Haiyi Hospital. However, Zhang Jiahui did not agree, and asked the collegial panel to re-deliberate according to her opinion and report to her for approval. In the end, the two cases were adjudicated under the intervention of Zhang Jiahui, and compared with the first instance, the Haiyi Hospital paid about 13.2 million yuan less for the project and liquidated damages.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

In April 2015, Zhang Jiahui was a guest on a rule of law program in Hainan. Photo/People's Court Newspaper

In order to help others, when some cases are brought to the adjudication committee for discussion, Zhang Jiahui will also express opinions that are beneficial to the parties to the adjudication committee as a member of the adjudication committee.

According to the judgment, in 2013, Zhang Jiahui was entrusted by Haikou Rushan Information Consulting Service Co., Ltd. to greet He Ying, the undertaker of the second-instance trial of the relevant case and a judge of the Hainan Higher People's Court. According to He Ying's testimony, Zhang Jiahui had inquired about the case before the collegial discussion, and He Ying's opinion at that time was to uphold the original judgment; but Zhang Jiahui did not agree, believing that the first-instance judgment should be revoked and he Ying should be allowed to "go back and think about it carefully", and He Ying finally insisted on his opinion. Later, the Rushan Company case was brought to the adjudication committee for discussion, and Zhang Jiahui issued opinions favorable to Rushan Company, amended and issued a judgment supporting Rushan Company's litigation claims.

According to the statistics of the Beijing News reporter, there are 8 similar cases in which Zhang Jiahui "endorsed" the entrusted party at the adjudication committee.

For other cases, Zhang Jiahui also personally inquired about it, but because the outcome of the case was already beneficial to Zhang Jiahui's request, she no longer intervened after she first learned about the situation. The reporter combed and found that there are about 20 such cases.

In addition, Zhang Jiahui also tried to exert influence on some cases, but due to the refusal of the leaders of the court and the judge who undertook the case, he did not succeed in the end.

For example, in 2017, Suzhou Gold Mantis Building Decoration Co., Ltd. had a case in the sanya intermediate court in the second instance, Zhang Jiahui was asked by the gold mantis company to ask Chen Heng, then vice president of the Sanya Intermediate Court, and Li Qing, president of the Sanya Intermediate Court, to take care of him. The testimony of Chen Heng and Li Qing showed that they agreed to Zhang Jiahui's request on the phone, but did not actually greet or question the members of the collegial panel about the case. In the end, the second instance of the case rejected the appeal of Gold Mantis and upheld the original judgment.

In addition to this superficial promise, there are also case-handling judges who directly reject Zhang Jiahui's request for "care". For example, Qi Yongjie, judge of the Hainan Higher People's Court, Guo Chaoyang, judge of the Haikou Intermediate Court, and Liu Yangui, judge of the Hainan Higher People's Court.

According to the judgment, in 2016, the Hainan Company of Nantong Great Wall Construction Group Company twice asked Zhang Jiahui to take care of relevant cases, and Zhang Jiahui was rejected after finding Liu Yangui. When Liu Yangui expressed his dissenting opinion to Zhang Jiahui for the second time, he "felt that Zhang Jiahui was not very happy, but he did not explicitly oppose it."

According to public information, Liu Yangui was the vice president of the Environmental Resources Trial Division of the Hainan Higher People's Court and the director of the Executive Bureau of the Hainan Higher People's Court. Of the many judges involved in Zhang Jiahui's case, he was the most conflicting. The judgment shows that from 2013 to 2017, Zhang Jiahui greeted Liu Yangui five times and asked him to take care of the entrusted case, and Liu Yangui's performance was different.

For example, in the 2013 case of the Haiyi Hospital, Liu Yangui, as the judge, was called to the office by Zhang Jiahui and reconsidered the case according to Zhang Jiahui's request. But in a 2016 case related to the Hainan Company of Nantong Great Wall Construction Group Company, he twice refused Zhang Jiahui's request.

In 2017, Zhang Jiahui approached Liu Yangui again and asked him to take care of shaanxi province in the second instance of the contract dispute case of the construction road and bridge engineering company. This time, Liu Yangui did not explicitly refuse and remanded the case for retrial.

In 2018, Liu Yangui began to introduce Zhang Jiahui to the trustees. In the first half of that year, he helped a company and its lawyer find Liu Lei, and sent 500,000 yuan to Zhang Jiahui through Liu Lei, asking Zhang to take care of the case of the trustee; in the second half of the year, Liu Yangui brokered for his lawyer friend Hu Tian and gave Zhang Jiahui 300,000 yuan through Liu Lei.

The secret in Zhang Jiahui's judgment: the vice president of the provincial high court amassed wealth and the unspoken rules of the judgment

On December 4, the day the first-instance judgment of Zhang Jiahui's case was pronounced, the lawyer representing the victim of the Zhangjiahui fraud case was interviewed by the Beijing News. Photo/Beijing News our video

After the first-instance judgment of Zhang Jiahui's case was pronounced, it aroused widespread concern in public opinion. On December 9, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission published a commentary article titled "Zhang Jiahui Case Exposed to 37 Bribe-Givers: Cutting off the Chain of Interests of Bending the Law for Personal Gain." The article said that in important positions and key links, relevant supervision and institutional loopholes provide rent-seeking space for them; on the other hand, the personal rights influence and huge economic interests behind the law enforcement and judicial field have made many parties to the case and judicial brokers flock to find ways to "hunt" judicial personnel.

On December 11, the official WeChat public account of the Political and Legal Committee of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, "Hainan Political and Legal Affairs", issued a circular on issues related to Zhang Jiahui's case. The circular said that the discipline inspection and supervision organs are working with the judicial-administrative organs to deal with issues related to the lawyers involved in the case; some of the judges and public employees involved in the case have been filed for review and investigation, some of the judges involved in the case have been convicted and punished, and other people involved in the case are being dealt with in different categories.

Beijing News reporter Wu Xiaofei Zhang Huilan

Edited by Shui Xuan, proofread by Wu Xingfa

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