A retired lawyer in his seventies with a glorious life, ruined by teaching criminal methods
Compiled from: Jufa
Case review
Lawyer Zhao from Tonghua, Jilin, was convicted of teaching criminal methods and sentenced to one year in prison for advising public officials on how to evade bribery risks. Zhao, now 71, once worked at the justice bureau of a district in Tonghua, Jilin, and only began practicing law after retiring from public office. Public records show that Zhao previously practiced at a law firm in Jilin, focusing on areas such as debt and credit, damages compensation, corporate and enterprise matters, and company liquidation.
From 2016 to 2018, Zhao, then Director and Party Branch Secretary of the Management Office of the Wunü Peak National Forest Park in Ji'an City, signed contracts for ecological toilets worth 185,000 yuan and 240,000 yuan respectively with two ecological technology companies without a bidding process. Before the contracts were signed, the two companies agreed to pay Zhao a total of 100,000 yuan in kickbacks in two installments.
On November 1, 2018, to evade investigation, Zhao used his own phone and his wife Xu's phone to call Zhao, asking in detail about methods to avoid bribery risks. Following the methods taught by Zhao, Zhao successfully obtained the kickback with the help of his brother-in-law.
The prosecution authorities held that the defendant Zhao Moumou imparted criminal methods to Zhao Mou, thereby enabling Zhao Mou to commit the crime of accepting bribes. His conduct violated the provisions of Article 295 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and should be pursued for criminal liability on the charge of imparting criminal methods. The defendant Zhao Moumou raised no objection to the facts and charges alleged by the prosecution authorities and pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in court. In April 2021, Zhao Moumou was convicted of the crime of imparting criminal methods and sentenced to one year of fixed-term imprisonment with a two-year suspension.
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 295 Crime of imparting criminal methods
[1] Whoever imparts criminal methods shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, or public surveillance; if the circumstances are serious, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years; if the circumstances are especially serious, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment.
[1] The author's perspective
[2] The objective aspect of the crime of imparting criminal methods is manifested in the act of imparting criminal methods, that is, imparting specific experience and skills for committing crimes to others through language, text, actions, or other means. For the perpetrator to constitute this crime, the methods imparted must be criminal methods. Here, criminal methods refer to the experience and skills of committing crimes, including means, steps, anti-investigation methods, etc. If only general illegal methods are imparted, this crime is not constituted.
On the one hand, any crime of teaching criminal methods inherently involves the dissemination of criminal methods and the imparting of criminal techniques, thereby directly undermining public order and security. This constitutes the direct object of this crime. On the other hand, depending on the nature of the criminal methods taught by the perpetrator, the person taught may commit various different crimes and thereby infringe upon different social relationships, even though the indirect object that this crime may infringe upon is no longer directly caused by the act itself. However, when the instructor teaches a specific criminal method to the person being taught, the instructor holds an attitude of hope or indifference toward the person being taught mastering and using these methods to infringe upon certain social relationships. The instructor subjectively possesses intent to infringe upon the social relationships determined by the content taught, and objectively engages in infringing conduct. Based on this, whether the person being taught accepts the instruction or whether they use these methods to commit crimes does not affect the instructor’s infringement upon social relationships.
