The president who access to private clubs said in court that he had been tortured to extort confessions and the trial had to be suspended

G-road Notes：According to the law, Confessions of criminal suspects obtained by unlawful means such as extorting confessions by torture, testimony of witnesses and statements of victims obtained by illegal means such as violence and threats shall be excluded. If a criminal suspect or a lawyer hired by him submits a confession extorted by torture, he shall be informed to provide relevant evidence truthfully or to provide relevant evidence. The clues should be carefully checked. We will intensify the investigation and prosecution of illegal and criminal acts such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence by violence, strictly examine and judge evidence, and ensure the quality of handling cases.

On August 8, Pan Furen, former president of Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, was charged with bribery and held a trial at the first instance of Nanchang Intermediate People's Court.

Pan Furen, the defendant, denied the bribery charges in court, saying that he had been tortured to extort confessions and that the prosecution's investigation procedure was illegal. The trial process was full of gunpowder, and the prosecution and the defense confronted fiercely and were forced to adjourn repeatedly.

Pan Furen, 68 years old, entered the court system in 1981. He has successively served in Shanghai County Court, Pudong New District Court, Shanghai No. 1 Middle Court and Shanghai High Court successively. He was promoted from a clerk, an assistant judge and a judge to a president, a member of the judicial committee and a vice president. In September 2006, Pan Furen was appointed as a member of the Party Group of Shanghai High Court, secretary and President of the Party Group of Shanghai First Intermediate Court, and official to the level of the main bureau. In 2011, Pan Furen, 59, was transferred to the Standing Deputy Director of the Social and Legal Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Political Consultative Conference until his retirement in November 2014.

After three years of retirement, Pan Furen fell out.

On July 21, 2017, the Shanghai Disciplinary Commission issued a message that Pan Furen had violated the spirit of the Eight Provisions of the Central Committee, entered private clubs in violation of regulations and accepted private travel arrangements; violated organizational discipline and did not report personal matters according to regulations; seriously violated the integrity discipline, and received gifts and gifts by himself and his relatives; Violation of work discipline, interference in judicial and market economic activities in violation of regulations; serious violation of national laws and regulations, use of power and influence for the benefit of others and accept huge amounts of property, suspected of bribery crime.

Pan Furen was dismissed from the Party by the Shanghai Discipline Commission, his retirement benefits were abolished and transferred to justice. A few days later, the procuratorate of Jiangxi Province designated jurisdiction. The Procuratorate of Nanchang City investigates and takes compulsory measures against the suspected bribery crime.

Since Pan Furen was transferred to the Nanchang  Procuratorate, his family members and defense lawyers have been shouting grievances on the Internet, saying that he was "tortured in detention center, and prosecution investigation procedure is illegal".

Court trial confrontation

On August 8, Pan Furen's trial was arranged in the Second Trial Chamber of Nanchang Intermediate Court. In addition to Pan Furen's relatives and friends, several criminal defense lawyers and law students from Jiangxi Normal University attended.

Prosecutor's accusation: From 2003 to 2017, Pan Furen took advantage of the convenience of his position and the formation of his authority and position to make profits for others in matters such as trial, project contracting, asset acquisition and personnel arrangement, and jointly with his wife Guo Xindi (another case) and son-in-law Wang Kai (another case). The illegal acceptance of nearly 60 items of property given by seven people, such as Xu Qiang, amounted to 8.058.52 million yuan.

According to the indictment, Pan Furen has accepted the entrustment of Xu Qiang, a lawyer of Shanghai Huating Law Firm, Li Chen, a lawyer of Beijing Dacheng Law Firm and Chen Qiufang, the former general manager of Shanghai Pepsi Cola Co., Ltd. to provide assistance in dealing with related cases, and has received 500,000 yuan of Xu Qiang separately or with his wife Guo Xindi. Li Chen 300,000 yuan and Chen Qiufang 500,000 yuan.

Among the other four bribery cases, Pan Furen was mainly suspected of seeking interests in project contracting, asset acquisition, personnel arrangements and other matters.

Among them, Pan Furen provided assistance to Lv Fengchi, shareholder of Shanghai Shengda Architectural Decoration Co., Ltd., in contracting Zhangjiang Court Project and Archives Hall Project of Pudong Court, receiving 1.08 million yuan together with his wife, and Wang Xinyao in contracting Sanyang New Village Project of Sanlin Town, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and demanding project funds. Help, share 2.4 million yuan with his wife; assist contractor Xu Guoming in handling cases, contracting projects and arranging work; share 1.87 million yuan with his wife and 500,000 yuan with his son-in-law; and Zhou Mingchang, former legal representative of Shanghai Jiangyang Fisheries Wholesale Market Management Co., Ltd., is in the case. To provide assistance in handling items, asset acquisition and other matters, he and his wife Guo Xindi jointly received RMB 900,000 yuan and 1,000.

Pan Furen said he was part of the truth about the allegations; as for the amount of bribery paid by 8.058.52 million yuan, he only admitted to accepting 1,000 pounds (about 8.522 million yuan) from Zhou Mingchang.

Pan Furen argued that he and the aforementioned bribery giver "only have the relationship between old friends'wedding and funeral, sickness and hospitalization", "these are small amounts, sent each other, the amount ranges from thousands to 120,000". For example, Lu Fengchi sent his local products, paintings, TV cabinets, etc., and he also sent clothes, ginseng and gifts to Lu Fengchi.

At the beginning of the trial, Pan Furen applied for the overall evasion of the Nanchang City Procuratorate, including the public prosecutor, on the grounds that he was tortured to extort confessions and that the case handlers obtained evidence illegally. The presiding judge said that the application had been rejected at the pre-trial meeting and Pan Furen's application had been rejected in court in view of his lack of new reasons.

After the application was rejected, Pan Furen was agitated and asked to withdraw from the court and try himself in absentia. At the same time, the defender was not allowed to continue to express his opinions and refused to answer the public prosecutor's interrogation, which resulted in the suspension of the trial three times in succession.

The next morning, there was an unexpected adjournment due to a dispute over witnesses' testimony in court.

Zhou Ze, the defender of the case and lawyer of Beijing Zebo Law Firm, put forward that according to the "Two High" and "Two Sections" of "Opinions on Promoting the Reform of the Criminal Procedure System Centered on Trial", the "public prosecutor, litigant or defender or litigant agent have objections to the testimony of the witness. The people's court considers that the testimony of the witness is against the case. In this case, witness testimony has a significant impact on conviction and sentencing. He believes that in this case, witness testimony has a significant impact on conviction and sentencing. Because the defendant does not plead guilty, the defendant and the defendant have objections to the testimony of the briber involved in seven bribery charges. The court should suspend the trial and notify the witness to testify in court first.

Another defender, Tao Wuping, a lawyer at Beijing Guantao Zhongmao (Shanghai) Law Firm, mentioned that Guo Xindi and Wang Kai, both accused of taking bribes together with Pan Furen and witnesses in the case, had turned over evidence in another case; Xu Qiang, of the seven bribery witnesses, had turned over evidence more than 20 times during the examination stage; Xu Qiang and Li Chen had disclosed to them privately.“ He did not send money to Pan, but had to admit it under pressure. "Lu Fengchi made a clear reference to the false testimony in his pre-court call a few days ago.

The public prosecutor thinks that the testimony of the witness who has not appeared in court can be read out in court according to Article 195 of the Criminal Procedure Law. The witness who has not appeared in Court conforms to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. The public prosecutor has verified the testimony of many witnesses, such as Lu Fengchi, Wang Xinyao and Xu Guoming, all claim that the testimony is true and has not been illegally collected; the testimony of witnesses Wang Kai and Zhou Mingchang, It has been confirmed by the court's decision.

In this regard, the presiding judge made a decision that only one person should be allowed to testify in court, and stressed that "the Supreme People's Court appoints the court to jurisdiction over the case, and the court hears the case according to law", requiring the public prosecutor to begin to give evidence.

Pan Furen again protested that he would refuse to cooperate with the trial if he did not agree with other witnesses. The presiding judge then adjourned the court and arranged for the defender to come to the lounge to communicate with Pan Furen.

The trial resumed near noon, and the aforementioned dispute was suspended for the time being.

Doubt about Family Property

The issue of the defendant's family property has become another focus of controversy between the prosecution and the defense.

Previously, the prosecutor mentioned that according to the confession made by Pan Furen's wife Guo Xindi on September 12, 2017, the family income of the defendant was 22 million yuan, the expenditure was 16 million yuan, and the net assets were about 6 million yuan in the past decades; however, at the time of the incident in 2017, the assets seized by the case-handling organ were more than 13 million yuan, and there were huge assets. The source is unknown. The public prosecutor believes that the calculation of family income and expenditure can prove the direction of bribery, and this calculation results corroborate the situation of Pan Furen's bribery case.

Tao Wuping, the defender, submitted a list of the income and expenditure of Pan Furen and Guo Xindi's family in court, calling it the income obtained by inquiring and checking Pan Furen. In his opinion, Guo Xindi's version of the statement provided by the public prosecutor omitted family financial income, rent income, Pan Furen's part-time income, and overcounted the purchase expenses of Pan Furen and his wife, and the borrowing expenses for his daughter Pan Yuxia.

Tao Wuping's statistical conclusion is that Pan Furen's family income is 30.045 million yuan, expenditure is 13.8 million yuan, and net assets are 16.245 million yuan. "After strict examination, Pan Furen's family property income and expenditure are basically balanced, and the allegation that he was bribed 8.05 million yuan will not be overwhelmed."

The prosecutor also questioned Tao Wuping's calculation. "For example, $1.5 million in non-wage income in the list includes human relations, but there is no such item in expenditure. Humanity exchanges have exchanges. If only income is calculated and expenditure is not calculated, then the true meaning of so-called human exchanges is self-evident."

At the same time, the prosecutor reminded the court that the cashier had collected 2 million yuan of cash from the safe of Panfuren's family, and that "bribery generally occurs in cash". "From the bank accounts of Pan Furen and his wife from 2011 to 2017, Pan Furen, as a salaried class, can carry out such a large amount of capital operation, which also proves the existence of unreasonable additional income." The prosecutor said.

The statistics of the defendant's family assets between the prosecution and the defense are obviously different. Defender Zhou Ze believes that this is the result of the trial.

He said, "The division of cases makes Pan Furen and Guo Xindi, Pan Furen and Wang Kai inevitably become witnesses to each other's scheme documents, but they can not appear in court as witnesses to accept the questioning of the other party's defenders, the other party's collegial panel judges and prosecutors, thus making it difficult to ascertain the facts of the case. "

China News Weekly learned that after Pan Furen's fall in 2017, Pan Furen, Guo Xindi and Wang Kai were separately examined and prosecuted by different procuratorial organs in Jiangxi Province. Among them, Pan Furen was prosecuted to the Nanchang Intermediate Court, Guo Xindi was prosecuted to the Donghu District Court of Nanchang City, and Wang Kai was prosecuted to the Yiyang County Court of Shangrao City. All three defence lawyers have submitted joint applications to the procuratorate and the court, but no response has been received.

On June 21 this year, Wang Kai, Pan Furen's son-in-law, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for bribery of 500,000 yuan. Wang Wanqiong, a defense lawyer for Pan Furen's wife Guo Xindi, told China News Weekly that the pre-court meeting of Guo Xindi's bribery case, originally scheduled for August 14, had been postponed because of the injuries caused by the undertaking officer's playing ball.

Trouble of Falling Horse

Pan Furen was investigated as part of the anti-corruption storm in Shanghai's political and legal system in the spring of 2017. Pan Furen also said at the trial that he was "totally implicated in Chen Xu's case".

Chen Xu, known as "Godfather" of Shanghai Beach Judiciary, was the former chief procurator of Shanghai Procuratorate. He was declared to be subject to organizational review on March 1, 2017, and became the "first tiger" of Shanghai's political and legal system.

Before and after Chen Xu's investigation, many people were implicated in Shanghai's judicial system: Wang Kangwu, former deputy director and secretary-general of Shanghai Arbitration Commission, was investigated in March 2016, Fu Qiang, former partner in charge of Shanghai Huacheng Law Firm, was taken away in May, and Pan Furen also received a call from Shanghai Discipline Commission on the night after Chen Xu's fall.

During Wang Kangwu's investigation, Pan Furen was also asked to make a joint investigation. Pan Yuxia, Pan Furen's daughter, told China News Weekly that she had seen a letter to the Shanghai Discipline Commission when she was cleaning up her parents'house, which was an answer to Wang Kangwu's question.

Pan Furen once mentioned to the attorney Zhou Ze that Chen Xu was investigated by the relevant departments around the Spring Festival in 2017. During that period, he lived in a hospital because of cancer. He visited the hospital five or six times. "When the case handlers know about it, they may suspect that Chen Xu and I have the possibility of informing or forming an Offensive-Defensive alliance, so on the day of announcing the double rules against Chen Xu, they will also call me for questioning."

"After going to the Shanghai Discipline Commission to handle the case, the investigators said that there were two reasons for reviewing me: first, the relationship with Chen Xu; second, some of my own problems need to be clarified to the organization." Pan Furen said that he made it clear at that time that he had "no unfair political and economic relationship with Chen Xu", and in order to show his loyalty to the organization, he explained the situation of the circle of friends who usually had human relations, and these people in the circle of friends "became bribers in the prosecution opinions of today's procuratorates".

According to another rumor, Pan Furen entered the court system because of Chen Xu's help. They are fellow townsmen in Huajing Town, Shanghai. Their official career also intersects with each other. In 1981, Pan Furen, 30, was transferred to the former Shanghai County Court, at which time Chen Xu had worked in the former Shanghai Intermediate Court for two years.

On October 25, 2018, the Nanning Intermediate People's Court of Guangxi pronounced Chen Xu's bribery case on the first instance. The defendant Chen Xu was charged with bribery of more than 740 million yuan and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pan Furen argued in court that his confession at the Disciplinary Commission stage was made under the coercion and lure of the relevant personnel. "My wife and son-in-law have been arrested, and they say that if I don't confess, they will arrest my daughter as well." He said that he had taken bribes according to the dictation of the case handlers, and signed a pseudonym on the confession record, reversing the "mouth" and "field" of the word "Fu" in his name to imply that "there is a hard word to say". From June 28, 2017, he began to deny all the statements he had made.

As a result, the Pan Furen trial went on for two days in twists and turns. On August 10, Pan Furen's physical condition was not suitable for the continuation of the trial. After the medical examination of the detention hospital confirmed that the court announced another optional hearing.

Source: China Newsweek