Second court accepts disputed confession

A court in Zhejiang province on Wednesday sentenced a former official to two years in prison for taking bribes after accepting his confession as proof of guilt.

The verdict was widely observed because the confession, which the former official said had been given under torture, was rejected by another court during a first trial. That was believed to be the first time on the mainland a court rejected evidence deemed as being obtained through illegal means.

The Intermediate People's Court of Ningbo in Zhejiang province ruled Zhang Guoxi, a former official in the construction department of the government-run Donghu holiday resort, guilty of bribery. Zhang was sentenced to two years in prison and his illegal gains will be confiscated.

"The court found Zhang had taken advantage of his post and accepted 40,000 yuan ($6,300) in bribes," the court said in a statement after the ruling.

In March 2011, local prosecutors accused Zhang of embezzling up to 76,000 yuan from project bidders from 2005 to 2008, when he held a key post in the holiday resort.

The prosecutor's office produced a confession signed by Zhang at the first trial, in the Yinzhou District People's Court in Ningbo. Zhang, however, retracted his confession in court and said he was tortured into making it.

Judges from the district court ruled the confession invalid because it was "obtained without proper procedures".

The guilty verdict handed down by the court in April 2011 said Zhang had taken 6,000 yuan in bribes, but he was spared criminal punishment because of the small amount.

Prosecutors, who insisted on the legitimacy of the confession, appealed to the intermediate court and delivered supplementary evidence - the testimony of two people and video clips of the interrogation. Meanwhile, Zhang appealed the initial guilty verdict.

The intermediate court, after two hearings, ruled on Wednesday the supplementary evidence is sufficient to prove that Zhang's confession was legally obtained and could be used as evidence.

"Given that the evidence provided by prosecutors is valid and sufficient, the court made a finding that Zhang had taken bribes," the court said.

Si Weijiang, one of Zhang's lawyers, said his client is innocent and he will help him appeal.

The prosecutors of the case could not be reached for comment by press time.

Chen Guangzhong, a renowned criminal-procedure law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said the first court's finding that Zhang's confession was invalid as evidence was a landmark ruling.

In China, defendants' claims that police or prosecutors illegally obtained evidence were often either ignored by courts or prosecutors were allowed to submit a statement clearing themselves, he said.

What the district court did has broken with the notion that "once a suspect is considered guilty, it doesn't matter whether the evidence to prove his guilt was obtained legally or not", he said.

In 2010, China published a regulation barring illegally obtained evidence in courts.

Forced confessions were outlawed in the latest revision of the country's Criminal Procedure Law.

The revision, passed in March, will take effect on Jan 1.

On Tuesday, the Supreme People's Procuratorate called on prosecutors at all levels to "faithfully" carry out the revised law and completely record the interrogations.

zhaoyinan@chinadaily.com.cn