Two days to plough through 1,900 pages of 'evidence' against Wei Jingsheng
Zhang Sizhi has spoken little in public about the extraordinary cases he has handled during his law career, but the Wei Jingsheng Foundation published his notes about how he handled Wei's appeal in 1995.
The mainland activist had served 15 years in jail for passing on 'military secrets' and was discharged in September 1993. Two years later, he was charged with plotting to overthrow the state; his court appearance was scheduled for December 1995.
Wei's family asked Zhang, the mainland's most senior defence lawyer, to take the case. The two met on December 11, two days before the hearing. 'Wei denied all the charges. All charges in the indictment have no factual credibility,' Zhang said in the notes.
Zhang and his lawyer partner then visited the courthouse to read the files - and found 12 of them, with 1,900 pages, some in small print. 'We had only about 24 hours to read them. It was a cold, unheated room.' They did not have enough time to read the evidence thoroughly and prepare the defence.
The next day they met officials of the Justice Ministry. 'One official insisted that there was no doubt about the charges. Why then do we need a defence?'
On the 13th, the trial opened. 'The defence arguments for Wei were eloquent and to the point. The request for defence witnesses was denied. The points [in the conviction] lacked common sense and legality. Wei was convicted at 1.45pm. There was no doubt that he had been found guilty before the trial began. The verdict was set beforehand.
'To avoid the media and the suspicion of 'leaking state secrets', we hid in a nameless hotel and continued to work for 50 hours. The Wei family asked us to consider an appeal. We felt helpless and [despaired at] the futility of appealing. We knew the overseas media was clamouring to interview us lawyers but we ignored them. We wanted to avoid 'leaking state secrets'.'
Wei appealed; the judge did not allow a hearing and accepted only a written statement from him. The notes continued: 'Because we could not investigate, we failed to bring full and accurate materials to court that would have enabled us to make the case against the prosecution's false accusations. This is unpardonable.' Wei was released in November 1997 'for medical reasons' and travelled to the US, where he now lives. Under the Communist Party's rule, he is unlikely to be able to return.
Zhang said he received support from many friends during the trial. A teacher, 92, told him: 'People will remember your work.' He said: 'To receive such valuable encouragement and trust after 50 hours of hard work was so comforting. It lent my life a new excitement and reinforced my professional integrity.'
