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.