Mr. Liu, a citizen, called the hotline of the party newspaper: I come from other provinces, and my brother was criminally detained by the local police on suspicion of participating in a local collective drug trafficking case. Now the case has reached the procuratorate. But my brother has always insisted that he happened to be at the scene and didn't participate, so he was wronged. My parents applied for legal aid on his behalf, but the aid lawyer told my brother after the meeting that if he wanted to defend himself, it would be a major and sensitive case and he had to report it to the relevant departments first. Is there such a legal requirement?
Party newspaper hotline reply: the reporter consulted the director fee of the municipal legal aid center. He explained that, first of all, according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), the judgment of the people's court shall prevail in determining whether a criminal suspect is guilty. Article 12 of the law clearly stipulates that no one shall be found guilty without a judgment by the people's court according to law. In other words, whether Mr. Liu's brother is guilty in the end is still inconclusive, and it depends on the final judgment of the people's court. If he refuses to accept the judgment of the first instance, Mr. Liu's younger brother can still appeal.
Secondly, according to the current criminal procedure law, criminal cases should be defended by practicing lawyers except close relatives. There are only the following three legal situations that lawyers should report to the relevant departments in the process of handling criminal cases: Article 40 of the Criminal Procedure Law clearly stipulates that the evidence collected by defenders that the suspect is not at the scene of the crime, has not reached the age of criminal responsibility, and belongs to a mental patient who is not criminally responsible according to law, and shall promptly inform the public security organ and the people's procuratorate. In addition to these three kinds, lawyers have no legal obligation to "report" to the relevant departments. In other words, if the suspect is on the scene and the lawyer defends his innocence, the lawyer has the right to defend himself independently according to law.
Thirdly, judging from the Lawyers Law and related criminal handling norms, it is not stipulated that lawyers must report to the relevant departments in advance to defend the innocence of the parties. Article 31 of China's Lawyers Law clearly stipulates that when a lawyer acts as a defender, he shall, according to facts and laws, put forward materials and opinions on whether the criminal suspect or defendant is innocent, the crime is light, or his criminal responsibility is reduced or exempted, so as to safeguard the litigation rights and other legitimate rights and interests of the criminal suspect or defendant. That is to say, lawyers can defend their clients according to the facts of the case and the relevant laws of the state, but not others, and can exercise their right of defense independently according to law, which is completely consistent with the legal principles of division of labor and cooperation and independent handling of cases in the public security law, and is conducive to the balance between prosecution and defense.
In short, no matter from the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law or the Lawyers Law, lawyers have no legal obligation to "report" to the relevant departments, including the judicial administrative organs of the competent departments, when defending criminal suspects who insist that they have no crime scene. Of course, as an important defense opinion that needs special care, it is permitted and advocated by our law that the lawyer in charge requests to discuss it in the law firm in advance or take the initiative to invite the criminal defense experts of the bar association to negotiate collectively to fully demonstrate the feasibility of his defense opinion.