The court acquitted in the first instance, and a female lawyer from Ningxia was charged with the crime of "defense counsel destroying evidence" by the agency | Ma | defense counsel
Ningxia lawyer Ma Mouchan was acquitted after being investigated by the police for 4 years. She has been charged with the crime of the suspect's defense counsel destroying evidence.
On August 7, 2023, the People's Court of Yanchi County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region made a first instance judgment on the case of Ma Mouchan. The court found that the evidence charged by the prosecution against Ma Mouchan for the crime of destroying evidence by the defense counsel is insufficient, and the charges cannot be established.
Ma Mouchan is a practicing lawyer at a law firm in Ningxia. In 2019, she was investigated by the Yanchi County Public Security Bureau on suspicion of aiding the parties in destroying evidence.
In March 2021, the People's Procuratorate of Yanchi County prosecuted the case of Ma Mouchan to the court. According to the prosecution's indictment, in July and August 2018, during the investigation by the Litong District Public Security Bureau into Yang Mouqing's alleged high interest loan transfer crime, Yang Mouqing asked Wang Mouhua to sort out some loan disbursement contracts of the Henghui Small Loan Company he operated and hand them over to Yan Mouli for safekeeping. Take these contracts home strictly.
On November 24, 2018, Yan Mouli was arrested on suspicion of provoking trouble and forcing transactions. Yang Mouqing's daughter funded the hiring of defense lawyers for her accomplices. On November 26 of the same year, Yan Mouli's wife entrusted Ma Mouchan to serve as Yan Mouli's defense lawyer.
According to the prosecution's charges, during Ma's tenure as defense counsel, he met with Yan Mouli three times. After learning about Yan Mouli's suspected criminal situation, she asked if Yan Mouli needed to give a message to his family. Yan Mouli asked her to tell her wife not to tell her daughter about her detention and to let her son leave Yang Mouqing's company.
Yan Mouli also asked Ma Mouchan to bring a message to Wang Mouhua and transfer the aforementioned promissory notes, contracts, and other evidence from his home. If Wang Mouhua doesn't move, let his wife and son throw away all the above-mentioned items in the house.
After Ma informed his wife of Yan Mouli's request, she transferred the relevant criminal evidence about Yang Mouqing's involvement in the gang that Yan Mouli had left inside the house to her old house. Afterwards, Yan Mouli's wife and children handed over the evidence of the transfer to the Anti Gang Office of Wuzhong Public Security Bureau. After investigation, it was found that Yan Mouli concealed accounting vouchers that should be kept, with a involved amount of 185 million yuan.
According to the verdict, Ma Mouchan does not agree with the criminal facts and charges charged by the prosecution. She argued that she did not constitute a crime. The defense lawyer also pointed out that the criminal facts charged by the prosecution are unclear, the evidence is insufficient, and the charges cannot be established.
The top news reporter noticed that the facts found in the court trial are consistent with the facts charged in the prosecution's indictment. According to the testimony excerpted from the court ruling, Yan Mouli mentioned that after being interrogated by the public security organs, he felt that some of the loan contracts and materials that Yang Mouqing had left at home were inappropriate, so he asked Ma Mouchan to bring a message and asked Wang Mouhua to his home to take these things away. If Wang doesn't go, let his son take those things to the company for Wang Mouhua or throw them away.
Yan Mouli's wife described in her testimony that Ma Mouchan said that Yan Mouli brought words and asked her to transfer the contents of three paper boxes and a snake skin bag that she had left at home.
However, in the court ruling, Ma Mouchan's confession cited did not mention that she helped Yan Mouli persuade his wife to transfer the loan contracts, documents, and other content.
The court trial found that the destruction of evidence by the defense counsel should result in the loss or partial loss of evidentiary power due to the destruction of evidence. Yan Mouli's son is a financial personnel of Henghui Small Loan Company who was investigated and has independent motives for transfer and concealment.
The court believes that the defendant Ma Mouchan helped the parties transfer evidence, but did not help destroy the evidence. The prosecution accuses Ma Mouchan of constituting the defense's destruction of evidence, but the relevant evidence cannot prove that Ma Mouchan helped destroy evidence. Therefore, the prosecution points out that the evidence against the defendant Ma Mouchan for the crime of defense's destruction of evidence is insufficient, and the charges cannot be established.
On August 7, 2023, the People's Court of Yanchi County made a first instance judgment on the case. The court mentioned in the judgment that, after discussion and decision by the trial committee of the court, the defendant Ma Mouchan was acquitted.
