The Chinese Testament of ‘Leadership’ in the Conservation Complaint Inserts the rights to a fair trial

When the son of Jun-ho, a key midfielder for the World Cup football team in South Korea, signed with the Chinese club, was an indicator of the Chinese ambition to dominate the world’s most popular sports.

But after being closed by Chinese police officers two years later, accusing him of bribery and fixing matches, he became a symbol of a different kind: a ruthless efficiency of the Chinese legal system.

Mr Son insisted on his examiners that he was innocent. He asked for a lawyer, but police, through the Korean translator, told him that one was unnecessary. Police threatened to bring his wife and asked how his children would be in prison if both parents were.

After months of custody, he was offered a contract in which he was promised a minor sentence in return for the signing of guilt. He took it.

It was a move that he would later regret saying that he signed only under the coercion. “Fear overcome me and without fully understanding the accusations, I admitted, hoping to return to my family,” Mr. Son told reporters at a press conference in South Korea, with tears. “It was a naive mistake.”

The arrangement offered by Mr. Son, known as a recognition of guilt in China, is a legal tactic that scientists say has further disturbed the rights of the accused in the judicial system that has long been stacked against them.

The courts and police in China are responsible for the Communist Party, and the condemnation rate is more than 99 percent. However, in recent years, the party has tried to create a fairer judicial system, including the introduction of a “indulgence system”.

This system has now transformed that justice is being implemented in China, allowing authorities to process cases faster. But this also made the system less honest, according to lawyers and experts, giving prosecutors more powerful to determine who will be punished and for how long.

In the last few years, such as XI Jinping, the best Chinese leader, has led the suppression of corruption throughout the society, the guilt tactic has become a critical means of prosecutors. He was used in investigations by officials, army, financial industry and, as in Mr. Son’s case, sports, as well as in campaigns to abolish organized crime and so -called evil forces.

“Acknowledgment is practiced in a disturbing manner,” said Zhiqiang Pu, a former Human Rights Lawyer in Beijing, who was broken in 2016 for “causing problems” for criticizing Chinese officials. “Threats used during testing, denying sleep, no one regulates the procedure.”

Black box

Mr. Many senior officials were trapped, including the former president of the Chinese Football Federation, who was sentenced to life last year for accepting bribes.

Authorities announced in September that a two -year investigation had discovered gambling and repairing matches that included 120 games and 41 football clubs. Mr Son was among 43 players, and officials China said he would ban sports for life.

Many details of the investigation have not been published, and the question of his innocence may not be resolved immediately. But Mr. Son’s account has gained a view of how individuals accused of crimes can press on accepting an agreement on the confession of guilt. He also felt that prosecutors use guilt obtained in this way to build larger cases against other suspects – in this case, his teammate Jin Jingdao.

Mr. Son told reporters that he thought the document he signed, who was in Chinese, admitted that he had received a payment of about $ 28,000 from Mr. Jin. Mr. Son said there is nothing illegal in payment, describing it as a normal financial transaction between friends.

Mr Son was detained in a cell in the northeastern city of Shenyang with 20 more people for almost a year, he told reporters. “He felt like hell every day because I didn’t know when I was released.” Only after signing that document, in March last year, he said he was allowed to return to South Korea.

He later learned that Mr. Jin had admitted that he had been harmonized and that the document would sign which Mr. Son had signed to be used as evidence that he had received a bribe from Mr. Jin to throw the game 2022. years. Mr. Jin is later forbidden to live.

Concern about coercion

When China introduced the guilt system in 2018, it is appreciated as the main progress as a rule that will allow those who were voluntarily guilty of gaining a “milder” punishment.

The goal was to simplify the judicial system to enhance with the number of cases that increased in recent decades. Such indulgence contracts can be offered suspicious offenders even before any formal costs are submitted. Now make up about 90 percent of beliefs.

But lawyers and experts say the suspects are often seduced in false confessions. Even A top prosecution He recently signaled the need for caution, saying that contracts for awarding guilt should be examined for coercive signs.

In recent interviews with Chinese media, judges expressed concern that the courts were just contracts for objection to complaint without a tire without being carefully studied. Professors of law questioned whether the quotas imposed on prosecutors made incentives for them to quickly conclude contracts.

XI Wei, Professor of the Right of the Normal University of Anhui in Central China, in a study of this practice, 226 cases found in which the defendants declared themselves guilty, but the authorities later discovered mistakes and inappropriate sentences.

A strong tool for shakedowns

Defense lawyers say that contracts for acknowledgment are also used to railway entrepreneurs and go after their property, especially since the Chinese economy is still struggling.

In the southwestern Chinese city of Mianyang, which hit a housing decline, the authorities in 2021 were detained by Zeng Jianbin, asset developers, together with their employees. Local police called them gang members and asked the public to submit evidence of crimes to prove their claim.

The local government started after Mr. Zeng’s property of his company, seizing hectares of land, hundreds of apartments and dozens of cars. His company paid a deposit of $ 83 million for a plot that is auctioned by the City. The officials returned the country and sold it again at the auction.

Prior to the trial, Mr. Zeng and his associates began in May 2023, acknowledged 14 employees – accountants, managers, staff and guards. But during the trial, these confessions began to be resolved.

Some employees said they did not understand the accusations and that they only acknowledged in the hope of being released, according to a trial transcript published online. The other employee was illiterate and could not read what he had signed.

Still, the judge accepted the guilt agreements and condemned all 14 employees to prison.

The verdict then provided the foundation in the case of the plaintiff against Mr. Zeng, who, among other charges, was charged with running a gang. He denied all charges, accusing the prosecutors of using false confessions as evidence against him.

“It confuses correctly and wrong, and that does something out of nothing,” he said, according to the transcript. “These accusations are not really based.”

Chen Siyu, Mr. Zeng’s wife, shared details about the temptation of her husband on social media to reporters. She has been detained for two years because of the “publishing of fake online online” and suspected money laundering, and was published only in December.

Mr. Zeng was found guilty of almost all charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Speaking

Mr. Son, a South Korean footballer, said he decided to give his side of the story after handing him a ban on a lifelong life in September after handing him a question of a football management body, FIFA.

In January, FIFA informed South Korea Football Association to reject China’s request for a lifelong ban. The FIFA spokesman did not reveal why the organization rejected the request of China, but it is unusual for the international body to counter the judgment of the domestic association on such a serious allegation.

Through his agent, Mr. Son refused to be interviewed. At a press conference, he said he believed there was an audio recording of his examination and that he would release him.

Asked about Mr. Son, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the matter was closed because the player “confessed guilty and accepted the sentence.”

Haemin Kwak contributed to the research.