According to Article 32 of the Criminal Procedure Law, the scope of defenders includes:
1. Lawyer. A lawyer refers to a practitioner who has obtained the qualification of lawyer according to legal procedures and provided legal services to the society after registration. Although qualified as a lawyer but not registered, he may not be entrusted by a lawyer as a defender.
In addition, article 13 of the Lawyers Law stipulates that the current staff of state organs may not concurrently serve as practicing lawyers. Lawyers are not allowed to practice law while serving as members of the Standing Committees of People's congresses at all levels. At the same time, Article 36 of the Law stipulates that a lawyer who has served as a judge or prosecutor shall not serve as an agent ad litem or defender for two years after leaving the people's court or people's procuratorate.
If a soldier becomes a criminal suspect or defendant, he may hire a lawyer from the army or local government to defend him.
Foreigners and stateless criminal suspects who entrust lawyers to defend can only entrust lawyers in China as defenders.
2. People's organizations or personnel recommended by the unit where the criminal suspect or defendant belongs. In view of the fact that the current team of lawyers in our country can not fully meet the actual needs, in order to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants, mass organizations such as trade unions, women's federations, the Communist Youth League Committee, and student unions, as well as the units where criminal suspects and defendants work, can recommend citizens to serve as defenders in criminal cases.
3. Guardians, relatives and friends of criminal suspects and defendants may also accept the entrustment of criminal suspects and defendants to act as their defenders. In fact, the revised Criminal Procedure Law has expanded the range of options for criminal suspects and defendants to entrust defenders, because all relatives and friends except guardians can accept the entrustment of criminal suspects, defendants and their legal representatives as defenders. This is very beneficial for criminal suspects and defendants to entrust defenders in time, solve the problem of difficulty in hiring lawyers in time and effectively, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
If a lawyer, a people's organization, a person recommended by the defendant's unit and the defendant's guardian, relatives and friends are entrusted as defenders, the people's court shall verify their identity certificates and power of attorney.