Recently, the first-instance judgment has been announced on Qinghai 8.04 illegal mining and unit bribery case. This case involves many issues such as coal mining, environmental protection and political integrity, and it is major and complex and has huge social impact. Suo Canjie, senior partner of ZhongYin Law Firm and director of its Criminal Law Department, and the lawyer Gao Ting acted as defenders of the mine manager Ma, and their defense opinions were adopted by the collegial panel, achieving an effective defense.

“In August 2020, according to the requirements of the CPC Central Committee, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, together with the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs of the CCCPC, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and other departments as well as the CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee, formed an investigation team to investigate relevant issues.”

——Source: CCTV1 Documentary Style Correction and Anti-Corruption Is Around

In the same month, the Department of Public Security of Qinghai Province filed a case against the accused company, Ma and others for the crime of illegal mining, and conducted a multi-department joint investigation into the case. Subsequently, the family of Ma entrusted the team led by Suo Canjie of ZhongYin Law Firm to defend Ma against the accusation. After accepting the entrustment, the defense lawyers met with Ma as soon as possible, get detailed information about the basic facts of the case, carefully studied relevant laws, and actively communicated with the case-handling organs, to protect Ma’s basic rights.

At the end of January 2021, the Department of Public Security of Qinghai Province completed the investigation and transferred the case to the People’s Procuratorate of Qinghai Province for review and prosecution; in February, the People’s Procuratorate of Chengxi District of Xining City was finally appointed to review and prosecute the case; in the same month, the procuratorate brought the case to the People’s Court of Chengxi District of Xining City. After reading case files and verifying evidence, the defenders repeatedly communicated and exchanged relevant opinions with the procurators and judges handling the case on the circumstances such as Defendant Ma’s voluntary surrender, role in the case, and illegal gains.

In July 2021, after two pre-trial conferences, the People’s Court of Chengxi District of Xining City formed a collegial panel consisting of 3 judges + 4 people’s assessors and let it hear the case in public. Defenders Suo Canjie and Gao Ting participated in the proceedings and carried out an all-round and meticulous defense on various issues in this case. After the trial, the two lawyers formed written defense opinions on the core issues in the case and the key issues in the court session and submitted them to the court.

In February 2023, another court session was opened for the case, and the collegial panel adopted the defenders’ defense opinions, found that Defendant Ma’s and others’ acts had constituted voluntary surrender, and announced the judgement in court.

Suo Canjie is a senior partner of ZhongYin Law Firm, the director of its Criminal Law Department, a part-time professor of the School of Juris Master in China University of Political Science and Law, an expert in the “Accusation, Appeal and Prosecution Expert Pool” of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the deputy director of the Research Center for Intelligent Law and Business Environment of China University of Political Science and Law.

Suo Canjie’s criminal defense team has handled a large number of criminal cases with social impact, such as cases of job-related crimes and economic crimes. The team has accumulated extensive practical experience in criminal defense, won the trust of clients with its prudence in case-handling and excellent professional ability, and is widely praised in the practice of criminal defense.