I Was Prohibited from Pleading Innocence and Was Expelled from Court*

• Author: Cheng Hai

Wang Jianying, the nearly 70-year-old retired assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology of China was charged for religious reasons. I was defending his case at the #2 courtroom of Anhui Province Hefei City Baohe District in the morning of May 24, 2011, the then presiding judge was Ding Aimin, director of the Criminal Tribunal Court. During the time of evidence verification, he incessantly interrupted my submissions. When I was expressing my defence opinion according to the laws, he even started a heated debate with me on the legal issues of this case (which was forbidden according to the judges’ code of conduct, in which judges were supposed to be the adjudicator), not allowing the lawyers to express their views on the nature and legal basis of the case, saying that the State had already had a conclusion on these issues and therefore no further discussion was needed. I reminded him that expressing defence opinion was a legal right given by the laws to the defence counsels, and that the judge had no right to interfere with or overpower such right. He threatened to throw me out of court if I ever expressed anything like that again. I continued to express defence opinion according to the laws, and Ding asked the bailiffs to take me out of court. The vice president in charge...